The US Embassy and the European Union Delegation in Sarajevo have welcomed Tuesday’s decision by the Central Election Commission (CIK) on how the government should be formed after the October election but in Bosnia itself, the decision sparked some outrage.
“We commend the CEC (CIK) for taking action that will enable formation of Federation authorities and call upon all relevant stakeholders to undertake necessary steps in this direction,” a joint statement said.
The long-awaited decision on which census should be taken as the basis for filling the upper house of the parliament of the Bosniak-Croat Federation (FBiH), one of the two semi-autonomous entities within Bosnia, became a burning issue since the October election.
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The CIK members were discussing whether to apply the 2013 census for filling the House of Peoples in that entity, or the one from 1991.
The two censuses show a very different population structure as a result of the ethnic cleansing during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Bosniak and left-leaning parties said it would be fair to use the pre-ethnic cleansing census from 1991.
The EU and the US expressed satisfaction with the fact that Bosnia’s Government can now finally be formed, since the process was hanging in the air over the issue, but said that a compromise still needs to be found.
“The decision adopted by CEC does not relieve responsible authorities from the obligation to address current gaps in the BiH Election Law in a systematic way,” the EU and the US said, encouraging parties to “intensify work on finding compromise solutions bringing the country closer, not further away, from European standards and democratic norms that ensure the equality of all in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
The statement pointed out that the US and the EU tried to facilitate talks between political parties on how to change the law throughout the past 18 months but that “due to a lack of political will to compromise, parties failed to reach agreement on a legislative solution.”
“In the absence of a legislative solution, the CEC has not only the authority, but also the responsibility to implement the election results,” it said, adding that experts from the Venice Commission, an advisory body to the Council of Europe, “made this clear in their discussions with political parties and with the CEC during visits to Sarajevo last summer and fall.”
Critics of the decision, mostly those from the Bosniak ethnic-oriented and leftist parties, have been warning that the decision would legalise the ethnic cleansing that took place in FBiH.
The main Bosniak party, the Party for Democratic Action (SDA), announced it would submit a request to the Constitutional Court asking it whether the CIK decision is in line with the Constitution.
“Disagreements with the CEC decision should be resolved through available legal means, and the government formation process should not be held hostage,” the EU and the US said.
