Dragan Covic, the leader of the HDZ BiH party and one of the ruling coalition leaders who took part in the recent meeting on changes to electoral legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent a final proposal of changes to the Election Law of BiH to his coalition partners based on, as he said, the agreement they reached in that meeting. Covic also said that it all depends on a "green light from the EU."
“Today I submitted what we talked about, the five leaders, and this is not a HDZ BiH's proposal, let me be clear,” Covic said addressing the media after the session of the Croat People's Assembly, an umbrela political organisation of the Bosnian Croats.
He unveiled that the proposal consists of three elements, including the changes concerning the Central Election Commission, the election of the State Presidency members, and technical issues i.e. the matters concerning the integrity of election process.
The proposal of changes on the election of the Presidency of BiH were created, as he said, under the condition that the Constitution cannot be amended, “and we assessed it is hard to create the environment where we would have a two-third majority in the Parliament of BiH.”
“We found a solution to a direct election of the Presidency member where nothing would be changed in Republika Srpska entity, nothing would be changed for the Presidency of BiH member from the Federation entity for the Bosniak member, and for the Croat member we had to add a conditional category. The one who wins among the Croats in the Federation entity will have win in at least three cantons defined there, if not in three then in two at least, and if not in two then in one, and if not in single one then the winner is the one with largest number of votes,” Covic said, specifying that the cantons in questions are Central Bosnia Canton, Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, West Herzegovina Canton, Canton 10 and Posavina Canton – five cantons with Croat majority of a total of ten cantons in the Federation entity.
The Presidency members, according to current legislation, are elected in both of Bosnia's entities, the Serb member in Republika Srpska, while the Bosniak and the Croat members are elected in the Federation. There is no regulation at the moment where a member of one ethnic group would be banned to vote for a candidate representing another ethnic group.
Covic also said that “it all depends on a green light from EU.”
“If there is no this process towards the EU, then it all makes no sense and we said let it be like this and may God help us,” he added.
The proposal was met with criticism from the opposition parties, with the Democratic Front (DF) saying they reject the solutions that “lead to divisions and dismantling of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
DF also said it appears from the agreement that Covic presented that he “won the Presidency” that SNSD leader Milorad Dodik “won the Constitution of BiH” and that “they both won the Central Election Commission.”
The parties from the Federation entity gathered in the Troika coalition, the DF stated, only won a “foggy European perspective made of Lego blocks.”
The SDA party leader Bakir Izetbegovic commented on the agreement a day earlier, saying that it opened path to the “Dodik-Covic duo” to put under control three important state institutions: the Presidency, the Constitutional Court and the Central Election Commission.
“The Presidency of BiH is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and is responsible for the most important appointments in the diplomatic network of BiH, the Constitutional Court of BiH is an effective barrier to attacks on the constitutional and legal order and this has been confirmed in practice in the last few years, the Central Election Commission organises elections and through changes which will probably be imposed by the High Representative will be given a mandate to appoint a few thousand observers who must be professional and impartial,” said Izetbegovic, adding that the proposed changes are “degrading” the position of the pro-Bosnian forces.
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