What happens after the failure of negotiations on changes to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina? Politicians have no answer to this question yet. The president of HDZ BiH, Dragan Covic, announced that at the end of the week he would inform the HNS about the interruption of the negotiation process. However, although Croatian parties are increasingly saying that there are no conditions for holding elections, there will be elections in October, the international community is clear.
Even after four years of trickery and conditioning, and less and less, it seems, quality talks on changes to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the intention to obtain a new election law that would, among other things, solve many problems in election process. But it seems that for our politicians the list of priorities is much different – drawing their own seats in the election law. For HDZ BiH, the negotiation process is over for now, and they add that the line below which there are no talks is a legitimate representation of the people. HDZ BiH leader Dragan Covic also stressed that the state parliament should adopt at least one part of the electoral reform, in order to create the conditions for holding elections.
“It seems to me that a part of what we agreed on, concerning the election legislation, some of us can put in the parliamentary procedure, so that we can at least finish that part of the work, create an environment, both political and legal, to organize elections,” he said.
“This refers to the part we only needed to discuss, therefore, it refers to the judgment of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Ljubic appeal and refers to the judgments of the Court of Human Rights, so that we can allow everyone to run, on the one hand , on the other hand, to enable Croats to elect their representatives, “said HNS member and HDZ 1990 president Ilija Cvitanovic.
The SDA leader expressed optimism that the last step in reaching an agreement would still be reached. He said that a lot had been done in the field of changes to the Election Law, and that maximalist goals should be abandoned.
“And they asked for too much. We were in favor of increasing the number, so it is no longer necessary to have six, but seven or eight Croats, who cannot come in front of the predominantly Bosniak cantons, of which there are five. If they do not have five percent of the Croatian population living in one canton, they do not give any. Croats in the Club of Deputies, that Sarajevo does not give anyone, of course, Una-Sana Canton, Bosnia-Podrinje Canton, which in our opinion was too much, “said SDA party President Bakir Izetbegovic.
Bosnia and Herzegovina will hardly be able to find the capacity for its institutional functioning, there is no way to solve this crisis, says SNSD President Milorad Dodik. He expects the elections to be called and believes that the election law should not be changed because there is no consensus, but he added that they are ready, as he said, to sit down and talk once again, at the highest level.
“We can have another dialogue at the highest level, as far as the SNSD is concerned, but having in mind what happened yesterday, there is no reason. The fact that someone is talking about integrity, it is not clear to me what integrity means, those are some manipulations from the side,”Dodik said.
After the end of the negotiations on the electoral reform, the Ambassador of the United States (U.S.), Michael Murphy, explained that the refusal to improve the functionality of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) made the agreement impossible.
“From the beginning, we said that it is better not to have an agreement than to establish a bad agreement. The functionality of the FBiH is key to fulfilling the rights of citizens – they must have confidence that their votes matter and that they can live without discrimination,” Murphy pointed out.
He stated that “achieving all the elements of one package would be a significant step forward” and expressed regret that BiHleaders did not seize the opportunity for a historic victory for their citizens.
”Today we had before us the components of one agreement that would meet all of these goals and that would deliver to political leaders everything they said they needed,” Murphy told.
He noted that this includes the integrity of the elections, the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, protection for BiH Croats in the form of a new model for the election of members of the Presidency of BiH and the House of Peoples of FBiH, as well as key reforms concerning the functionality of the FBiH.
“No party would get 100 percent of what they asked for, but 70 percent and citizens would get hope for a better future,” the U.S.ambassador said.
“At the end of the negotiations, all the leaders told us that they thought they had made progress and that they better understood each other’s views on all issues. Unfortunately, the SDA and HDZ could not translate that into a reasonable compromise,” Murphy said.
Also, he pointed out that there was too much focus on the symbolism and not on substance.
“The particular refusal to accept reasonable changes that would improve the functionality of institutions in the Federation has made it impossible to reach a balanced agreement in order to ensure the functioning
The international community has once again expressed disappointment and concern over recent developments over the failure to amend Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Election Law. They called on the authorities to provide funds for the organization of the elections.
“It is now up to the leaders of this country to build on these foundations and find the courage to reach compromises that have not been done so far, and which must be accepted in Parliament,” said the United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The most important thing is that the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina makes the necessary decisions on the allocation of funds needed to organize the elections in October,” said Kathleen Kavalec, head of the OSCE Mission to BiH.
Eichhorst, who was an international mediator with the US Ambassador to BiH Michael Murphy, pointed out that all possibilities of foreign mediators have been exhausted and that everything is currently up to domestic officials.
She emphasized that the negotiations concerned the integrity of the election process, changes to the BiH Constitution, the election model for two members of the BiH Presidency from the Federation of BiH, and that there were some steps forward in the functioning of FBiH.
She claims that the leaders agreed on a mechanism that would prevent blockades of appointing the FBiH Government or appointing judges of the BiH Constitutional Court, and that the issue of the competence of the House of Peoples remained controversial due to disagreements between SDA and HDZ.
“With such events on European soil and the geopolitical scene, this was a real opportunity to express readiness to reach a consensus. An agreement on these issues would bring BiH closer to the EU,” she emphasized.
However, she claims that a significant step has been taken in discussing the functionality of the Federation of BiH for the first time since Dayton.
Eichhorst pointed out that all parliamentary parties were invited, and that it is not true that some did not receive an invitation. She believes that the part about the integrity of the election process should definitely be referred to the parliamentary procedure.
She emphasized the importance of talks on amending the BiH Constitution and the obligation of the state to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
“It is crucial that elections are held, because citizens have the right to go to the polls, and that is a constitutional category that the EU will continue to insist on,” she said.
And so, once again, the opportunity to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the European path was missed, since changes to the election law are one of the 14 priorities of the European Commission.