The “troika” parties have called a meeting of representatives of all political parties in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly for today in Sarajevo to discuss changes to the Constitution of BiH.
According to announcements, representatives of SNSD, DEMOS and United Srpska will attend the meeting, while SDS and PDP announced that they will not respond to the invitation.
When it comes to parties from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SDA, NES and the Democratic Front stated that they will not participate in the discussions on constitutional changes.
SNSD President Milorad Dodik said earlier that this meeting is a waste of time because there is no consensus on such an important issue, expressing his suspicion that it is intended to destroy the agreement that the parties that make up the government at the BiH level reached in Laktaši.
Dodik stated that due to previously undertaken obligations, I will not attend this meeting, but that he will be a representative of the SNSD.
“We all know that the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is very difficult. I think it is very naive to expect to try to do something in this way. We are not ready to erase anything that is an ethnic prefix,” said Dodik.
The president of DEMOS, Nedeljko Čubrilović, said that it is frivolous to discuss constitutional changes in a “let’s talk” manner, especially since the purpose of such meetings must be more serious preparation.
“I will not go to the meeting, but a representative of DEMOS will attend so that they can see what direction they are trying to take,” said Čubrilović.
The leader of the United Srpska Nenad Stevandić said that the meeting on changes to the Constitution of BiH, which was called by the “troika” parties, could be a kind of alibi to avoid the agreement reached in Laktaši.
“As far as Republika Srpska is concerned, we have all pursued a coordinated national policy so far, so we will agree on what our joint response will be. There will be no individual responses, nor will they succeed in fragmenting us,” said Stevandic.
He stated that amendments to the Constitution can only be agreed upon by the peoples of the entities, and never by foreign ambassadors, and that a representative of the United Srpska will present the party’s views at the meeting in Sarajevo.
The president of the HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, said earlier that he would go to the meeting called by the “troika” parties, but that even a comma of the Constitution of BiH would be difficult to change.
He assessed that under the existing conditions it is not possible to secure a two-thirds majority in the parliament and that instead of amending the Constitution, one should concentrate only on amending the Election Law of BiH, for which the votes of the majority of the deputies are sufficient.
Konaković stated earlier that they convened a meeting to discuss amendments to the Constitution of BiH, which, as he assessed, would create prerequisites for changes to the electoral legislation regarding the implementation of judgments of international courts.
He said that, apart from this, the issue of electing a Croatian member of the BiH Presidency is also a priority, stating that its resolution is possible only in a package with other amendments to the Election Law.
