In the previous days, the 27th Congress of the European People’s Party (EPP) was held in Rotterdam, at which, among other things, a resolution on electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was adopted.
Leaders of the SDA Bakir Izetbegovic, HDZ Dragan Covic, PDP Branislav Borenovic, and HDZ 1990 Ilija Cvitanovic visited Rotterdam as members of this large populist group. And since everyone in BiH must return as winners and leaders of good policies, space has been found in interpreting what has been adopted.
The Croatian HDZ has proposed the urgent adoption of a resolution on the necessary electoral reform in BiH, which has been awaited for years, and many suffer from the lack of an agreement, especially citizens who do not declare themselves as one of the three constituent peoples. An integral part of the resolution were the sentences of BiH HDZ clearly stating the term “legitimate representation”. But, in the final version, that terminology was not there, and then the interpretations started and everyone is a winner for themselves.
First, the SDA announced that the HDZ had experienced a debacle, emphasizing that it was good that the EPP accepted the arguments and marked those who were blocking democratic processes in BiH.
However, Dragan Covic also saw a bright side in the EPP resolution. Even though the term legitimate representation is not mentioned, the need for urgent electoral reform in line with international judgments and decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court was emphasized. The resolution mentions the equality of the three constituent peoples and other citizens, which was enough for Covic to interpret the resolution in question as to his victory.
It is interesting that the fact that the EPP in the resolution emphasizes the importance of the final implementation of international judgments, especially in the cases of Sejdic-Finci, Pilav, Slaku, and Pudaric, domestic actors left all that aside in the negotiations, and negotiated the so-called legitimate representation. Ultimately, whatever was adopted, each of the BiH participants would interpret it in their own way.
And the adopted resolution is just another in a series from which policies are drawn, and there is no practical progress at all. Insofar as only the resolution and the declaration are something emphasized and something is thrown out. Months go by and nothing changes. We are moving slowly as snails towards the European Union (EU), the country is threatened with secessionism, elections are being blocked, and we are dreaming of EU candidate status, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
