Vice President of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity, Milan Dunovic, strongly criticised the High Representative of the international community in BiH, arguing that the changes to the Election Law and FBiH Constitution he imposed did not ensure the functioning of the entity and favour only one Bosnian Croat party.
“A number of things in this decision, in my opinion, are not in accordance with the FBiH Constitution and favour the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH),” Dunovic said.
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He argued that the High Representative, Christian Schmidt, failed to take into account the verdict of the Constitutional Court on the appeal of the current Bosnian Croat in the tripartite Presidency, Zeljko Komsic. According to that verdict, the Court determined that there was discrimination against citizens who are not members of one of the constituent peoples, as they are prevented from being elected to the post of president and vice president of the entity. Additionally, Schmidt ignored the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, Dunovic stressed.
He also noted that the census from 2013 is used for the appointment of mandates from the cantonal assemblies to the FBiH Parliament, although Annex 7 of the Dayton Peace Agreement – the Agreement on Refugees and Displaced Persons – has not been fully implemented.
Dunovic argued that the 2013 census represents “the result of ethnic cleansing”, and that Schmidt approved using it for the process of forming the FBiH Parliament.
Meanwhile, the census from 1991 is used in the process of forming the FBiH Government, Dunovic said, arguing that if the 2013 census was used in this case as well, the quota for Bosnian Croat ministers would be lower.
“In areas where an ethnic group is more homogenised, more delegates from that group are delegated,” he said, noting that he believes that the decision implies that “a Croat who is not a member of HDZ or HNS (Croat National Assembly, the umbrella organisation of Bosnian Croat political parties) is not a Croat.”
“This is not in accordance with democratic principles. Also, the electoral will of the citizens was stolen. And political subjects were defrauded because they voted according to one rule, and the results will be implemented according to another. HDZ will always be an indispensable factor for the formation of government in FBiH,” he said.
Dunovic argued that it is not fair to have a minority rule over a majority.
Dunovic did welcome some other decisions Schmidt made, arguing that he invested an effort into unblocking the process of appointing judges of the FBiH Constitutional Court.
Dunovic said that, other than that, Schmidt did not prevent blockades regarding anything else in FBiH.
