In case the Democratic Action Party (SDA) fails to ensure a 22-vote majority in the Bosnian Parliament, they will seek to form a majority without the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the winning Serb party in the country, as long as other Serb parties respect the law, Bosnia's Civil Affairs Minister and the SDA high official, Adil Osmanovic told N1, on Wednesday.
“We're in constant talks and whenever we sit for a coffee we talk about problems and future moves. If this yields no results, we'll have to work with some other parties from the (Serb-dominated) Republika Srpska entity, willing to respect the law. If the SNSD gets back to respecting the Constitution, then we'll form the state parliament with that party very quickly,” Osmanovic said.
He added that the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Party of Democratic Party (PDP) do not have the capacity to form the entity majority in that entity and it is not easy being an opposition there.
“Obviously they can't stand the current situation as opposition and they've started taking certain steps in that direction,” he noted.
The leaders of the three parties which won the election signed an Agreement containing principles for forming the government on August 5 in an effort to overcome the stalemate, but the main issue, the ANP, is vaguely defined in the document and remains unresolved while the 30-day deadline set in the agreement is approaching.
The Bosnian Serb Presidency member, Milorad Dodik, said that if the government is not formed by September 5, the parliament of the Serb-majority semi-autonomous part of the country, Republika Srpska (RS), will organise a session where it will discuss declaring all decisions which are not strictly in accordance with the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement invalid.
This would mean that the RS would try to strip away the competencies of bodies that were established at the state level after the peace agreement, such as the joint state-level Armed Forces, the state-level tax office, the state court and police agency and others.
Osmanovic noted that the fact the government was not formed by September 5 does not mean it would not be formed later.
“Dodik obviously thought he'd implement something his way, very quickly. I worked with him for over 10 years and I know him very well. He thought he'd implement some things in the Presidency and the parliament overnight and impose his tempo. He wanted to impose the disrespect of the Constitution and place entities above the state via his political dominance,” Osmanovic pointed out, adding that Dodik must be aware this is Sarajevo and that laws are respected here.
