“We welcome today’s political agreement on the electoral law for Mostar between political leaders which would finally pave the way for the residents of Mostar to exercise their right to vote in the municipal elections after 12 years. We now look forward to the swift adoption of the related legislative amendments by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in line with prescribed procedure, and we urge the governing majority to ensure all necessary conditions are met for the municipal elections to take place throughout the country, including the adoption of the budget,” is written in a joint statement by HR/VP Josep Borrell and Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi on political agreement on the electoral law for Mostar
Holding municipal elections in Mostar is included among the 14 key priorities of the Commission’s Opinion on the EU membership application of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As regards the political agreement on further electoral reform, the EU recalls the need to fully address the Opinion key priorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina to progress on its EU accession path.
While taking into account the country-specific context, election-related issues should be addressed in line with European standards. No legislative or political steps should be taken which would make the implementation of the European Court for Human Rights Sejdić-Finci ruling and related rulings more challenging. Bosnia and Herzegovina also needs to implement OSCE/ODIHR recommendations in order to improve the democratic quality of its electoral processes.
After several meetings of distant positions, the leaders of HDZ and SDA parties, Dragan Covic and Bakir Izetbegovic, signed a political agreement on holding elections in the largest city in Herzegovina, Klix.ba news portal reports.
Izetbegovic and Covic agreed on the implementation of the Constitutional Court ruling, due to which local elections in Mostar have not been held since 2008, as well as amendments to the statute of the City of Mostar, which should be adopted at the first constituent session after the new City Council elections.
Also, by signing the document, Covic and Izetbegovic undertook to agree on the disputed issues from the Election Law by the end of 2021, in order to be ready to enter the 2022 election year.
The signing of the agreement was attended by the High Representative in BiH Valentin Inzko, US Ambassador Eric Nelson, British Ambassador to BiH Matthew Field and the head of the EU Delegation to BiH Johann Sattler.
The agreement was also signed by Slaven Zeljko and Salem Maric, presidents of the HDZ and SDA city organizations in Mostar.
