”Currently, there are no conditions for holding elections, and even if they are held, they will not be able to be implemented in the part concerning the election of delegates to the federal House of Peoples, ” claims the President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) Marinko Cavara. On the other hand, the Vice President of the FBiH Milan Dunovic, as well as lawyers, state that the election results can be carried out thanks to the article of the Constitution of the FBiH, but also the instructions of the Central Election Commission (CEC) from 2018. CEC of BiH did not discuss this topic, as they said.
The President of the FBiH mentioned that there are currently no conditions for full implementation of the election results. He pointed out that it is unacceptable for the members of the CEC of BiH, as the executive body that implements the law, to change the disputed provisions of the Election Law instead of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH). And if the elections are held, he claims, it is impossible to hold them in the part of the elections of the delegates of the House of Peoples of the federal parliament, BHRT writes.
“There are no conditions for the elections if the Constitutional Court ruled that certain provisions of the Election Law are not in accordance with the Constitution of BiH and ordered the PABiH to amend the Election Law and harmonize with the Constitution on December 5th, 2016 and the deadline was July 6th, 2017. The PABiH did not do that, “ stated FBiH President Marinko Cavara.
According to Cavar, the Constitutional Court of BiH deleted those provisions from the Election Law which speak of filling the House of Peoples. The Vice President of the FBiH, Milan Dunovic, stressed that the fact is that the article was deleted after the verdict on the appeal of Ljubic. After the deletion of the disputed article, the then convocation of the CEC issued a special instruction which filled the House of Peoples after the elections. The instruction is still in force, but the current convocation of the CEC, until the elections this year, can bring different instructions, Dunovic explains. He characterizes Cavar‘s allegations as deceiving the public.
“So it is completely untrue that is not known according to which procedure the elections would be held, and what would be the procedure for filling the House of Peoples, the Constitution of the Federation is still in force, that article defines it precisely, and it is also questionable why several years ago, Borjana initiated an appeal against that very article of the Constitution,“noted Dunovic.
The CEC stated that they did not discuss this topic and that the public will be informed as soon as they make comment. Experts, on the other hand, explain that at the same time there is an article in the Constitution of the FBiH that defines the minimum quotas of constituent peoples and others from cantonal assemblies that are delegated to the House of Peoples of the FBiH. Therefore, there is no legal vacuum for the implementation of election results.
“When it comes to the way of filling the House of Peoples, we do not have that in the state Constitution, but we have in the Constitution of the Federation, those provisions in the Constitution of the Federation have never been repealed and the question is whether the Constitution of BiH can be denied and apply a different way of when it comes to filling the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament, but again it is political irresponsibility, “ emphasized Vehid Sehic, lawyer and former member of the CEC of BiH.
”Most political representatives believe that holding elections is not questionable. Croatian National Assembly (HNS), on the other hand, claims that the conditions for holding elections do not exist unless the Election Law is amended before the elections are called. If there is no solution, it is an introduction to another political crisis, ” explained the President of the FBiH.
