Judge of the European Court for Human Rights Faris Vehabovictold that it is necessary to accelerate the filling of constitutional courts, especially the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), before the October elections are held.
“When we have unfilled constitutional courts, we have the possibility of proceedings that can be opened regarding the electoral process, and if we leave the constitutional courts unfilled, we also leave the possibility of the entire electoral process being stopped because the constitutional courts are not filled,” said Vehabovic.
He added that there is no need to remind how long the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) has been empty, how many years it has not been able to resolve issues of vital national interest that are raised in the House of Peoples.
“Not to mention the importance of the Constitutional Court of BiH, which currently has eight members, and that it is necessary before the election campaign officially begins, that, let’s say, in as much peace as possible, that election should be held precisely because of the possibility of opening various procedures which could then lead to the blocking of the establishment of government due to the absence of constitutional courts,” notedVehabovic.
He pointed out that the Constitutional Court of BiH is particularly important, and that each member is of particular importance because hypothetically speaking, if there is a tie in the voting, then only the vote of the president decides.
To recall, the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the FBiH will elect a new judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH, after Mato Tadic‘s mandate expired as he is 70 years old now.
“The Constitutional Court of BiH informed the FBiH Parliament on time about the need to start the procedure for electing a new judge. I really don’t know why it hasn’t been done until now. I repeat, I think that this issue needs to be resolved urgently. As far as I remember, and I worked at the Constitutional Court of BiH as the registrar for seven years, it has never happened that the Constitutional Court of BiH was without a judge for a single day, who practically has six months to be elected from the moment the Constitutional Court of BiH sends a notification to the competent parliament,” said Vehabovic.
Speaking about the situation in the FBiH Constitutional Court, he said that the situation is much worse, because the court currently has only 5 members, and in the event that only one judge’s mandate expires, there will not be the necessary quorum for functioning. In January, judge Kata Senjak retires, so failure to appoint a new judge would lead to a complete blockade of the court.
“The court will not be able to exercise its function in that case,” concluded Vehabovic, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
