On October 2nd last year, on election night, High Representative Christian Schmidt imposed changes to the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Election Law that produced a major political crisis in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) entity, but in the end, with additional interventions, enabled the appointment of a new composition of the FBiH Government after eight years.
“My decisions will help this country to be able to prepare these talks in a democratic way and to produce results,” Schmidt said when imposing changes to the electoral law.
On October 2nd, 2022, he also sent an urgent request to the elected convocation of the BiH Parliament to quickly adopt a decision that has been discussed for more than ten years, that is being waited for, and that only a flood of words are uttered without any consequences –
the implementation of the Sejdic verdict- Finci, Zornic and all other decisions of the court in Strasbourg and the courts in Sarajevo.
“I will be in that team and I will help, because this requires a lot of work and thinking,” said Schmidt, but his demands have not been met even today.
He also said that his decisions introduce mechanisms for unblocking and strictly defined deadlines, which will ensure the functionality of the FBiH.
“Many procedures have been simplified. Deadlines have been introduced. And there are consequences for ignoring these deadlines. After today’s decisions, no political party, nor any elected official, will be able to hold the Federation hostage anymore,” Schmidt said on October 2nd.
After that, the Government of FBiH was not formed for almost half a year, so Schmidt, after a series of warnings, decided to act in accordance with his powers, that is, to use the Bonn powers.
This confirmed that Schmidt “miscalculated” a bit in October and did not fully elaborate on his decision. It was on April 27ththat he “touched” the FBiH Constitution, which enabled the new parliamentary majority (Coalition of Three and HDZ + parties gathered around Croatian National Assembly – HNS except HRS) to appoint a new Government of the FBiH with Nermin Niksic as Prime Minister.
Amendments to the electoral law and amendments to the Constitution of the Federation attempt to prevent blockages in the election of the president and two vice-presidents of the Federation by reducing the mandatory number of votes required for election.
The set of questions that define what is a vital national interest has been shortened, that is, a limited set of questions, which prevents unlimited abuse of a vital interest, and the Constitutional Court of FBiH will elect members of the Council for the Protection of Vital National Interest from among the judges of that court.
The decisions he imposed refer only to the level of the FBiH and did not include any changes at the level of the state of BiH or the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
