Representatives of the ruling Serb party in the country did not attend an urgent session of the lower house on Friday so the agenda could not be adopted since there was no quorum of representatives of the Serb-dominated part of the country.
The agenda entailed a discussion on a report on the work of Bosnia’s top judicial institution and proposals by the Europan Commission regarding Bosnia’s judiciary, which has been under fire for a while but culminated recently over allegations of corruption at the top level.
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“There are things that need to be done according to a particular order following the election – which is forming the executive government and the conditions for the legislative bodies to work in their full capacity. Then there are the programmes of the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, so that Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples could move a step further,” House of Representatives Speaker Borjana Kristo told reporters after the session was stopped.
She said it is not up to her to say who is responsible for the government crisis in the country but that all institution suffer the consequences.
Lawmakers of the main Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), and several smaller Bosnian Serb parties have previously announced that they will not accept any activities in the parliament until Bosnia forms a new government, officially in Bosnia called the Council of Ministers’, following the 2018 General Election.
“If we don’t allow citizens to take things into their own hands on the street, then we need to solve their problems in the institutions, as citizens have voted in the elections, elected their representatives and ask them to work,” lawmaker and current Security Minister Dragan Mektic told reporters.
People have problems that should be solved in their lives, but those were put aside while politicians are dealing with minor political self-interests, he said, adding that those who want to “boycott the parliament” will not succeed.
Mektic noted that those lawmakers boycotted the parliament for 16 months during the last mandate, but were being paid throughout that time regularly.
“That is their behaviour and their responsibility toward the citizens, and this session today was supposed to take place as there was no basis for voting on the agenda,” he added.
Mektic also reminded that the European Commission has in its recent report said that the situation in Bosnia’s judiciary is concerning, but that it is good that citizens had a chance to see who exactly does not want to discuss that issue.
But SNSD’s Stasa Kosaras said his party is not obstructing the work of the parliament, even though there were no lawmakers from the party were present.
“That is a notorious falsehood,” he said.
“It is completely clear that the adequate material was not submitted for today’s session and representatives of institutions were not present,” Kosarac insisted.
