A new round of talks will follow talks in Neum in late January, which ended without a concrete agreement and were mediated by US and European Union representatives Matthew Palmer and Angelina Eichhorst.
It is expected that the parties that were present at the talks in Neum – SDA, HDZ BiH, Narod i pravda, SBBBiH – will participate in today’s meeting.
Milorad Dodik, leader of the SNSD and member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), announced the possibility of boycotting the elections if foreigners interfere in that process, but opposition parties claim that it will not happen and that elections which will change the government will be held.
Speaking about the changes to the Election Law of BiH, Dodik pointed out that Bosniaks will not allow Croats to exercise the rights they have and that it is possible that Croats will not go to the upcoming elections because of that.
“If there is an interference of foreigners in the work of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH, Republika Srpska (RS) will not go to the elections either. We are looking for a completely neutral electoral structure and a situation to participate in,” Dodik said, adding that it is possible for RS opposition to participate in such elections and that the ruling coalition can prevent such elections from being conducted, and that it is enough that municipalities do not form local election commissions.
When asked whether the elections should be boycotted if foreigners interfere in the mentioned process, Nenad Stevandic, the president of the United Srpska (Ujedinjena Srpska), said that a broader dialogue between all political actors in the RS should be opened and that an agreement was important.
“In any case, that kind of decision would require the absolute consensus of everyone in the RS, otherwise the question of the legitimacy of elected Serbs in joint institutions would be raised,” Stevandic emphasized.
RS opposition initially refused not to participate in the elections. However, they agree with Dodik that the issue of voting by mail should be resolved because the possibility of manipulating and buying those votes is huge.
The opposition parties do not rule out the possibility that the SNSD and HDZ will boycott the elections, but for the reason, as they claim, that they are aware that they will lose power over them, and not because of some interference from the side.
Zeljko Bakalar, the president of the CEC of BiH, stated that the announcements of the boycott do not represent a boycott, but political ideas that would lead to institutional obstruction of the election process, and that is a significant difference.
“Given the current political situation in the country, such ideas are worrying, but at the moment, while they are only in the idea phase, it is not something we as a body of the election administration should look at,” Bakalar explained.
Bakalar told that there were issues during the organization of the previous election cycle, but that with the help of friends from the international community, it was all brought to an end.
The President of the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Dragan Covic, sent a letter to the international mediators in the negotiations on electoral reform, Matthew Palmer and Angelina Eichhorst.
He thanked Palmer and Eichorst for their efforts over the past year and a half in finding solutions that would fully implement the political agreements from Mostar signed on June 17th, 2020. He stressed that the commitment and expertise were of utmost importance for the process that ended with the negotiations in Neum at the end of January 2022.
Covic reminded that thanks to the efforts made, shortly after the signing, they successfully implemented the agreement relating to the City of Mostar, and after twelve years, democratic elections were held for the City Council of the City of Mostar.
“This rightly aroused our optimism, which was necessary for resolving open issues in the relations between Bosniaks and Croats,” Covic told.
On the other hand, he added that the agreement which refers to the legitimate election and legitimate political representation of constituent peoples and citizens at all administrative and political levels, in the Presidency of BiH and the Houses of Peoples, and ensuring the active and passive right of every citizen throughout BiH, despite the efforts of the HNS BiH, remains unfulfilled.
Also, he recalled how, in cooperation with Palmer and Eichorst, they held hundreds of hours of negotiations on limited amendments to the BiH Constitution and electoral legislation to implement decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the BiH Constitutional Court, including U-23/14, and implement relevant OSCE recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission in line with European standards.
Finally, while expressing deep gratitude to Palmer and Eichorst for their commitment and support to BiH, all its peoples and citizens on the Euro-Atlantic path, which despite all the difficulties and challenges remains our only perspective, Covic added in a letter to Palmer and Eichorstthat “persistent dialogue and compromise are the only way to build, unfortunately already deeply damaged, trust and reconciliation, which will allow us to turn a new page in favor of our country’s Euro-Atlantic future.”
Covic noted after the negotiations on changes to the Election Law in Neum that there are three more models that need to be harmonized.
”My belief that we will end this in Neum did not come to a final realization, but a lot has been put on the table in terms of all four elements of our agreements. The wish was to implement the agreement from Mostar and in some way give a clear answer about that legitimate representation in the Presidency and the House of Peoples in order to implement all the judgments of the Court in Strasbourg and the Court of BiH.
There is a certain step forward, there are still differences that need to be harmonized. This is the first time that we have put all the proposals and initiatives on the table, and so far only the HDZ and the representatives of the Croatian people have put them on the table. We gave a specific proposal on all four points, especially regarding the Election Law and the solution of the problem of the House of Peoples, but this time we also received written proposals from other colleagues,” Covic added.
Further, he mentioned that one model was proposed for the first time by the Bosniaks, so there are three models that are in the phase of trying to harmonize with each other, and pointed out that it is important that the open question of whether what is proposed is in line with the European Union (EU) standards and Venice Commissionwas raised.
”Now how to proceed, that is the real question. This format is complete. Due to the current political situation, we are given the opportunity to continue the talks inseven to ten days and to bring closer the positions on the model for the election of the Presidency, ie the House of Peoples.
If we agreed on that, I believe it would be much easier to achieve the agreement. I will not talk about my optimism, because it has been spent in the past six months, ” said Covic.
”This morning, we proposed an electoral model in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) with two electoral lists. We then received a proposal from the Bosniak side. I believe that if we had been really committed and if we had done this six months ago, we would have an agreement today. Regarding the House of Peoples, we proposed 16 plus 1 model, 16 to follow the model of numbers, and 17th to be elected by all counties. As for the reduction of powers, we offered solutions to which we did not receive an answer, ” stated yesterday the president of the HDZ BiH.
