Elections must take place as scheduled by the Central Election Commission and funds for that must be ensured, Bosnia Presidency Chairman Sefik Dzaferovic told N1, adding that anyone preventing this from happening will be held responsible.

Dzaferovic said he hoped the Council of Ministers, Bosnia's executive authority, would adopt the 2020 budget proposal this week, deliver it to the Presidency, which would send it to the Parliament for the final adoption.

Asked who is obstructing the budget adoption at the moment, Dzaferovic briefly replied that the Finance and Treasury Ministry has not yet submitted the budget proposal.

As for the Mostar elections, the local vote that has been on hold in this city since 2008 due to political disagreements on the city's statute, the Presidency Chairman said the EU-mediated talks on this matter are likely to result in a solution acceptable to all sides.

“Any solution reached in the talks between (the main Bosniak and Croat political parties ) the SDA and HDZ BiH, held under auspices of the international community will, of course, be presented to all other political parties and anything that will be done will be done in line with the (decisions of )the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he stressed.

Dzaferovic, who is the SDA's senior member, refused to unveil the details of the agreement, noting that he was not directly involved in the talks but that he was informed that there were few matters left to be agreed on. 

The local elections in the City of Mostar were last held in 2008. Two years later, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina acted upon motion of Croat representatives in the state Parliament, assessing as unconstitutional parts of the Bosnia’s Election Law which refer to the City of Mostar.

The court tasked the state Parliament in 2010 to amend the Election Law regarding the provisions which treat the electoral rules in that city but this did not happen to date and Mostar elections remain the subject of political disagreements.