“Only Zeljko Komsic can rejoice in this outcome of the negotiations, naively believing that his concept of electoral fraud has a future,” Dodik told Srna when asked to comment on the failure of the four-day negotiations between the leaders of the Federation of BiH parties on changes to BiH election legislation. in the building of the Delegation of the European Union in Sarajevo, with the mediation of representatives of the international community.
The leader of the SNSD emphasized that the negotiations on the changes to the Election Law were conducted through the representatives of the Brussels and American administrations, which was not enough to end in success.
It is also an important message to domestic political actors, but also to international mediators, that the only real agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the one reached independently of those who have electoral legitimacy. The question is how these negotiations would end if one side, I think “The Muslim one, and I mean specifically Bakir Izetbegovic, did not persistently count on external actors,” Dodik pointed out.
He pointed out that the failure to reach an agreement on amending the Election Law in BiH will continue the period of political instability because one of the three constituent peoples, in this case the Croats, is dissatisfied with their position and feels humiliated.
“And the problem of one nation, as I said before, is the problem of all three,” said Dodik.
After the end of the negotiations on the electoral reform, the Ambassador of the United States (U.S.), Michael Murphy, explained that the refusal to improve the functionality of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) made the agreement impossible.
“From the beginning, we said that it is better not to have an agreement than to establish a bad agreement. The functionality of the FBiH is key to fulfilling the rights of citizens – they must have confidence that their votes matter and that they can live without discrimination,” Moore pointed out.
He stated that “achieving all the elements of one package would be a significant step forward” and expressed regret that BiHleaders did not seize the opportunity for a historic victory for their citizens.
”Today we had before us the components of one agreement that would meet all of these goals and that would deliver to political leaders everything they said they needed,” Murphy told.
He noted that this includes the integrity of the elections, the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, protection for BiH Croats in the form of a new model for the election of members of the Presidency of BiH and the House of Peoples of FBiH, as well as key reforms concerning the functionality of the FBiH.
“No party would get 100 percent of what they asked for, but 70 percent and citizens would get hope for a better future,” the U.S.ambassador said.
“At the end of the negotiations, all the leaders told us that they thought they had made progress and that they better understood each other’s views on all issues. Unfortunately, the SDA and HDZ could not translate that into a reasonable compromise,” Murphy said.
Also, he pointed out that there was too much focus on the symbolism and not on substance.
“The particular refusal to accept reasonable changes that would improve the functionality of institutions in the Federation has made it impossible to reach a balanced agreement in order to ensure the functioning of the government,” he added.
