The Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Presidency, Milorad Dodik, has supported the Bosnian Croat HDZ BiH party's demand that the country's election law be amended because he believes that the situation in which Bosniaks elect Croats' political representatives must not happen again.

“You cannot ignore the Croats’ right to authentically chose their political representatives. It is not good that Bosniaks elect anybody of authority for Croats. How can the HDZ BiH trust the (Bosniak) Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which has elected Zeljko Komsic to the post of the Croat member of the BiH Presidency. He is a Croat… but he was not elected by Croats but by Bosniaks,” Dodik said in an interview with the Tuesday issue of the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenje daily.

He added that this was one of the fundamental issues that would have to be solved in the coming period and announced that his SNSD party would support any election model that would enable Croats to elect their legitimate political representatives.

Dodik also believes that Bosnia and Herzegovina's relations with Croatia have been affected by the “Komsic case”.

“Communication between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia has been reduced due to (Croatia's) dissatisfaction with Komsic's election as the Croat Presidency member,” said Dodik, noting that this was why meetings had not been held on outstanding issues such as the construction of a radioactive waste disposal site at Trgovska Gora in Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The HDZ BiH and the SDA have been trying to agree on an electoral model that would be acceptable to all but there are no indications that a possible compromise is near.

The leading Bosniak party considers as a priority the creation of conditions for the implementation of local elections in Mostar in October, while the HDZ BiH insists that that be a part of a legislative set that would also regulate the election of deputies to the houses of peoples of the national parliament and the Federation entity parliament, as well as members of the BiH Presidency.

Election law changes are one of the 14 tasks the European Commission has set for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a precondition for obtaining the status of a candidate country.