The German Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomed on Thursday the decision of Bosnia’s top international official, German politician Christian Schmidt, to use his powers and make the election process in the country more fair and transparent.
Schmidt, the international official overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, imposed on Wednesday a set of technical changes to the BiH Election Law concerning the integrity of the electoral process in the country.
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Last week, N1 broke the story that, according to diplomatic sources, Schmidt plans to use his so-called ‘Bonn Powers’ to impose measures to secure the functioning of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) by August 1.
The draft contained changes to the Election Law that were welcomed by Bosnian Croat political parties, most notably the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) which had demanded that political representatives in the Federation are elected exclusively by members of their ethnic group.
However, opponents argue such changes would lead to further divisions in the country and human rights violations and insist that citizens should be able to vote for whoever they like, regardless of the candidate’s ethnic identity.
The proposal prompted thousands of Bosnians to protest in front of the Office of the High Representative against Schmidt’s leaked proposal.
Schmidt finally decided to only impose technical changes and ensure the elections are more transparent and fair.
The German Embassy said that the imposed changes can improve the integrity and therefore the credibility of the elections and that the changes have been previously discussed with experts of the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
The Embassy urged local politicians to make sure citizens can fully exercise their rights and that elections in October take place in line with the law and the imposed changes.
It also criticized the “inflammatory rhetoric” by the leader of the strongest Bosniak party in the country, Bakir Izetbegovic, as well as the Bosnian Serb member of the tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, calling it “irresponsible.”
The Embassy called on politicians to return to an objective discourse, understanding and balance instead of hatred and divisions and to work together on the well-being of citizens and the country’s accession to the EU.
