Deputies in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia-Herzegovina rejected to adopt the amendments to the Election Law, thereby prohibiting a person convicted for war crimes from being elected to office.
The initiative to amend this law was submitted by a member of the Bosniak caucus in the House of Peoples, Denis Becirovic (Social Democratic Party – SDP), who clarified that the elected officials could not be persons who had served their sentence in the Hague Tribunal or a domestic court for war crime.
Becirovic addressed to the deputies saying that the goal is to protect Bosnia’s international reputation because it is impossible to move towards EU and NATO integrations with persons convicted of war crimes who hold important positions or official duties in the country.
He estimated that the task of the MPs was to restore the confidence of citizens in the state institutions and that the adoption of this law would make a positive step in that direction.
“War crimes convicts cannot play any social or political role in any EU country, and it’s time for Bosnia to move towards those standards as well,” urged Becirovic.
