Collegium of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s House of Representatives (HoR) failed to schedule the inaugural session of this chamber due to the lack of consent of one of the deputy speakers, HoR Speaker Mladen Bosic said following the collegium’s meeting on Tuesday.

Deputy Speaker Borjana Kristo, according to Bosic, did not give consent for a date when the session would be held.

“Mrs Kristo proposed no date. We’re in a vacuum now, I don’t know what to say. A decision (to schedule the session) must be passed unanimously,” said Bosic, emphasising that this was supposed to be a formality.

“The fifth or the sixth (of December) is a deadline. I don’t know if this is the start of a tactic to block the formation of authorities,” Bosic added.

Political talks on possible post-election coalitions and implementation of the October 7 general election results in Bosnia have been ongoing for weeks. Failure to convene the HoR, which was supposed to form a commission that would appoint new Council of Ministers, was the first hint of a possible blockade of that process.

Kristo also addressed the reporters, saying that the session will take place within the time frame stipulated by the law.

“There’s a procedure which says that the oldest Collegium member is presiding until new members are appointed. If one of the Collegium members is unable to attend, they can delegate someone of their caucus to replace them,” Kristo explained, adding, “We have no problem regarding the scheduling of the inaugural session.”

However, she did not say why the decision was not passed on Tuesday.

In a statement for N1, the third member of the Collegium, Sefik Dzaferovic, said he was convinced the inaugural session would take place by the stipulated deadline.

“Mrs Kristo said she was in favour of holding the session within the deadline stipulated by the Constitution, but she wasn’t for deciding on the date today,” he added.