Bosnia's top electoral authority asked the State Parliament to amend the Election Law and postpone this year's local election due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The Central Election Commission, which calls and oversee election process in Bosnia, convened on Thursday and agreed to launch an initiative towards the change of Bosnia's Election Law, which would postpone the local election that was supposed to take place this year.

Proposed changes to the Election Law introduce a term of exceptional circumstances that considers an emergency situation as well as the state of natural disaster declared by competent institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which includes all levels of authority and determines that the Central Election Commission has authority to postpone the calling and holding of elections.

According to the same changes, the Commission would be in charge of the assessment of the situation and decide on calling the elections even during the exceptional circumstances, if the conditions and legal framework were met.

The Commission recalled that the state government, formally called the Council of Ministers, declared the state of natural disaster on March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic and passed a decision on the operation of the state institutions towards the protection of health and lives of its employees.

In line with current law provisions, the Commission is supposed to call the October local election in early May.