Croatia and Serbia should refrain from the commenting on the election in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said European Parliament member Jasenko Selimovic, commenting on the general election held in Bosnia on October 7.
Speaking for N1, Selimovic said he was glad Serbia demonstrated a restraint regarding the election process in Bosnia and Herzegovina but he was surprised that Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic “was using every opportunity to deal with the internal matters of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Croatia's Plenkovic commented on several occasions these days the race for the Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, where the candidate of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Dragan Covic, lost to a social democrat, Zeljko Komsic. Plenkovic and Covic, and their respective parties objected Komsic's election, claiming that he was elected owing to the votes of the Bosniaks rather than the Croats’ votes.
“All those who lose get mad. Covic must see if his policy was good. The Croat people did not elect him like they did the last time. Apparently, the Croats didn't want him. He should ask himself if the nationalist policy has brought him votes,” said MEP Selimovic.
As for the election of the Serb member of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, the leader of the major Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), he would be representing the whole country and not one people only, according to Selimovic.
“Dodik will have to reduce his nationalist rhetoric in order to be accepted in Brussels. If he wants (to establish) a dialogue with Brussels, then he will have to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina. I hope he will succeed in that otherwise he's going to have problems,” he added.
The state Constitution, which stems from the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) which ended the 1992-95 armed conflict in Bosnia, stipulates that Presidency consists of one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb member, with the Serb elected in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska (RS), and the Bosniak and the Croat members in the Federation (FBiH), the entity these two ethnic groups share.
