The US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina commented on Monday the ongoing political talks and discussions on changes to electoral legislation in the country, only hours after HDZ BiH party leader Dragan Covic, the participant of the recent talks on this matter, presented a proposal of changes to the Law on Election of BiH. The embassy said that the issue of the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings is crucial, with the most prominent of them concerning the issue of election of BiH Presidency members, which cannot be regulated through the Election Law changes only.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued several rulings directing local political leaders to amend the Dayton Constitution, and the EU has underscored that Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot join the EU without doing so, the embassy recalled in a statement.

“The most prominent of these rulings address the country’s tripartite presidency. The United States strongly supports efforts by the country’s political leaders to reach the compromises necessary to amend BiH’s Constitution regarding the Presidency in a manner that brings it into compliance with ECHR rulings,” the embassy said.

It emphasised that this is “not possible to do this by amending the BiH election law” and that the constitutional amendments are required, too.

“International legal experts, including from the Venice Commission, were unequivocal on this point during the 2021-2022 EU-U.S. facilitated constitutional/electoral reform talks with political parties. This fundamental legal fact has not changed,” the embassy underlined.

HDZ BiH's Covic presents proposal of changes to Bosnia's Election Law

Presenting the law changes, Covic said that the leaders “assessed it is hard to create the environment where we would have a two-third majority in the Parliament of BiH” for the changes to the Constitution.