According to one of the representatives of the Democratic Front (DF) party, while EU-facilitated talks on electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina took place between representatives of the ruling ethnic parties in one room on Friday, talks with representatives of civic parties took place in another room.

The second day of a new round of talks on electoral reform and improvements to the integrity of the election process took place in the building of the EU Delegation to BiH on Friday.

Civic parties – parties that are not ethnically aligned and promote a state setup based on a civic concept – are also participating in these talks.

However, during the break, Zlatan Begic, a representative of the DF, told the media that he is strongly disappointed with the process.

“Again, we are discriminated against, some are in one room, others are in another, I'm not sure we need such an EU,” he said, noting that the negotiators who participated in the earlier talks in Neum continue to conduct negotiations separately.

Begic explained that the negotiating teams were separated from the start. He said he was part of the team discussing only the integrity of the election process, while those who participated in the Neum negotiations discussed the electoral model.

“We were surprised by this approach,” he told the media.

Begic also said that there seems to be an effort to make “every kind of concession” to Bosnia’s Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), the strongest Bosnian Croat political party in the country.