Legitimate representation for Bosnia’s constituent peoples at all government levels must be guaranteed and is non-negotiable, the leaders of the strongest ethnic Serb and Croat parties in Bosnia, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic, said after meeting on Friday.
Covic and his Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) have been insisting on reforming BiH’s election law in a way that would guarantee that ethnic Croats are those who elect the Croat member of the tripartite state Presidency.
According to the HDZ BiH, as well as other Croat ethnic parties in the country, Presidency member Zeljko Komsic is not a legitimate representative of the ethnic group.
RELATED NEWS
Bosnia’s Presidency members are elected from the two semi-autonomous entities in the county, and while one of them is elected from the Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) entity, both other members are elected in the Federation (FBiH), which is mostly shared between Bosniaks and Croats.
According to Bosnian Croat political representatives, the numerically dominant Bosniaks were those who elected Komsic to represent Croats in the institution.
BiH tripartite Presidency member Dodik, who is the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), met with Covic after he discussed electoral reform with US envoy Matthew Palmer and European External Action Service (EEAS) Managing Director Angelina Eichhorst that morning.
Referring to Bosniaks, he began the meeting by saying that “Muslims want to create their Muslim state.”
He told the media after the meeting that what his party supports in terms of the electoral system in the country is only a confirmation of “what is the essence of BiH itself, and that is the visibility of the constituent peoples in terms of their representation at any government level and the right to legitimate choice.”
“This is something we have agreed on for a long time and I do not understand why the Federation of BiH has not accepted that basic relationship and system for 10 years and I can think that it is because of growing Muslim-Bosniak nationalism that puts others into an unsatisfactory and difficult position.”
Dodik said that he and his “friend” Covic do not want to see any of Bosnia’s peoples being put into an unequal position.
“If it would be up to us, at least regarding issue BiH would not have any crisis,” he said.
The SNSD leader also complained that the Central Election Commission was elected “completely non-transparently and illegitimately.”
Covic told the media that Bosnia’s current political crisis is serious, stressing that “peace simple doesn’t have an alternative and we must overcome the crisis with negotiations.”
“Our common position is that we simply have to provide a basis for the constituent peoples to be legitimately represented where the Constitution provides it – in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the House of Peoples,” he said.
Kakvo je tvoje mišljenje o ovome?
Budi prvi koji će ostaviti komentar!