Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) leader Dragan Covic thinks it is possible to reach an agreement with coalition partners in the state-level government on comprehensive changes to Bosnia and Herzegovina's election by the end of January, and that there is no need for an intervention by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

Speaking in an interview with the BiH edition of the Vecernji List daily, published on Saturday, Covic said that the parliamentary majority is willing to prepare a new election law and submit it for discussion by the end of January.

“We have a clear majority in both houses (of the BiH parliament). Let's work on it intensively and I believe everything can be resolved by the end of January,” Covic said, adding that an agreement between the HDZ BiH and three parties making up the Bosniak-civic bloc in the ruling coalition is crucial.

On 19 December the international community's High Representative to BiH, Christian Schmidt, gave the local authorities three weeks to change the election law to ensure the integrity of the voting process, noting that if they failed to do so, he would change the law.

The House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament on Friday adopted, at the proposal of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA), a set of technical changes to the election law in a bid to bolster the integrity of the election processes.

The changes refer mostly to introducing new voting and ballot-counting technologies and define the role of the Central Election Commission (SIP) and local polling committees.

The Democratic Action Party ‘s (SDA) proposal was supported in the House of Representatives by the three-member Bosniak-civic bloc, however, deputies from the HDZ BiH and Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party were against for different reasons.

The amendments should also be endorsed by the upper chamber of the state parliament, the House of Peoples, where the HDZ BiH and the SNSD have the majority necessary to block laws adopted by the lower house, and the SDA's amendments are unlikely to get the final confirmation there.

Covic said that his party finds partial changes to the election law unacceptable, noting that the law must be improved comprehensively, primarily to address the issue of the “legitimate representation” of the constituent peoples, particularly in elections for the BiH Presidency.

“There is no greater threat to the integrity of the election process than the misrepresentation of the Croat member of the BiH Presidency we are witnessing today,” Covic said in an allusion to the way Zeljko Komsic was elected to the BiH Presidency for the fourth time.

Covic believes the adoption of comprehensive changes to the election law is the most important task and an important precondition for the European Council to decide to launch accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2024.

“If a good solution for legitimate representation is found… in the (Bosniak-Croat) BiH Federation entity, in addition to those on Central Election Commission's role and technical changes, the matter is resolved,” he said.