Member of the ‘Pod Lupom’ election watchdog and former member of Bosnia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Vehid Sehic, told N1 that it remains "unclear" why the state working group for amending Bosnia’s electoral legislation is comprised only of members of political parties and does not include members of the CEC or representatives of civil society.

The working group will hold its constitutive session on Tuesday.

Sehic said that at the beginning representatives of the ruling parties were being considered for the group, but noted that the proposal that representatives of opposition parties also participate in it was accepted.

However, he argued that it remains unclear why the members of the Central Election Commission are excluded, since “they know the good and bad sides of the Election Law, what should be changed in both technical and essential matters, which should be amended.”

“They did not include representatives of civil society in BiH. We insisted that we should include representatives of academic communities, experts who deal with electoral processes and political systems. However, here there is an agenda to control everything in an inappropriate way so we should not be surprised why this is the composition of the Inter-ministerial group,” Sehic said.

Some political representatives have argued that the CEC should not be included because it “does not have legitimacy,” arguing that the members of the body were not chosen according to law.

“I would just ask them to read the Election Law of BiH,” Sehic said, arguing that the election of the CEC members took place according to law.

He criticised Bosnia’s current Election Law, saying that it is “unacceptable” that some Bosnian citizens who do not want to declare as being of a certain ethnicity “have all obligations towards the state like everyone else, but don’t have the same rights.”

“That is proof of discrimination,” he said, arguing that implementing European Court of Human Rights rulings regarding the issue would remove discrimination from the electoral system.