Chief of OSCE Mission in BiH Fletcher Burton, warned yesterday in Sarajevo, that if the issue of ‘Sejdić-Finci’ does not resolve by the next year, when the general elections should be held, it will be a burden for the implementation of elections.
‘I want to incite political leaders and representatives in BiH and FBiH Parliament to start tackling this issue. ‘Sejdić-Finci’ represents a very important pre-condition for the continuation of the work of The Central Election Commission and integration of possible solutions for existing regulations’, noted Burton.
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Right (ODIHR) considers the ‘Sejdić-Finci’ ruling the key obstacle in their analysis of 2010 elections.
‘What happened by now is disappointment, because no progress in solving that issue has been made, and time passes. However, there is time to find the solution concerning the court itself and concerning the philosophy of the ruling, which is the elimination of any form of discrimination’, says Burton.
Burton, talking about the ‘Sejdić-Finci’ ruling as the central issue of negotiations which were led by European Commissioner Štefan Füle, said that both Füle and Council of Europe pointed out the importance of the ruling.
‘ It is important that the removal of the discrimination is not lost from the perspective, because it is not just about the ruling itself and the demands that come from negotiations, but also about democratic pre-condition for holding elections next year’.
Talking that the ruling ‘Sejdić-Finci’ is of importance for OSCE in BiH he noted three key messages of OSCE.
‘The first one is that the progress so-far is disappointing. The second message is that one must deal with that issue as soon as possible, because so many things depend on finding the solution. It is the message of not just the EU and the Council of Europe, European Court for Human Rights, but also ODIHR’, said Burton.
Talking about the third message, he concluded that the central issue in the process is the removal of discrimination.
Last year’s local elections are, according to him, carried out according to election law and with international standards.
‘It is a good evaluation when someone says that the elections were well prepared. My mission has taken duty to distribute the conclusions of the conference ‘Local elections 2012- Analysis of the Election processes’ in written form to wider public as a form of brochure’, added Burton.
