International community’s High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt expressed his support for the work of the Central Election Commission of BiH on Monday as well as commented on the recent allegations regarding the resolution of the issue of state property, and tried once more to clarify the decisions he imposed on October 2, which are why protests were scheduled held in front of the Office of the High Representative building today, in the afternoon. Pročitaj više

Namely, as he said, he wanted to express his concern about the events in which some were unable to accept the results of the elections and to express his unequivocal support for the election watchdog.

“I want to be clear in all parts of the country – in healthy democracies, the results are determined by an independent election commission, not political parties. In this country, the CEC organizes elections, counts the votes and announces the results. It is their discretionary right to investigate cases if irregularities appear,” he stressed.

He also spoke about the necessary reforms on the way to the EU, and in this sense about the task of solving the issue of the state property of the former Yugoslavia.

“BiH is the only former Yugoslav republic that has not resolved this issue. The ban on disposal has been in place for 17 years. All the relevant actors agreed that this issue must be resolved at the state level, but, nevertheless, nothing is happening”, he recalled, adding that his previous incentives to the entity and state authorities on this issue were in vain.

“The BiH Parliament must finally adopt a law on state property that concerns state property. Let me be clear – this is not about behind-the-scenes work – it is simply about finally having to start within the institutions. I promise you that we will work on a sustainable and legally acceptable solution. Nothing more and nothing less,” Schmidt said after speculation that he was “preparing the ground for the allocation of state property to the Republika Srpska (RS) entity.”

He briefly referred to numerous criticisms of his decisions on election night.

“Decisions had to be made. I am also dissatisfied with the turn of events. It would be better if domestic politicians engaged in an honest dialogue,” Schmidt began this topic by recalling all the failed negotiations – in which, as he says, the result was zero.

“It is necessary to take care of the realization of human rights, according to the cases Sejdić – Finci et al. I took care of the functionality of the Federation (FBiH) entity. New judges of the FBiH Constitutional Court have already been appointed. I would recommend all politicians to look at the tasks before them,” he concluded.