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SARAJEVO, June 18 (FENA) - President of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Bakir Izetbegović sent a letter to the President of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Čović regarding the implementation of the Political Agreement on the Principles of Amending the Election Legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed in Mostar on June 17, 2020.
In the letter, Izetbegović assessed that the negotiating format, which includes only representatives of the SDA and HDZ BiH, has used all its possibilities, and that the SDA is ready to continue negotiations, but only in a format that would bring together representatives of all parliamentary parties and domestic and foreign legal experts in an advisory capacity.
The SDA President also reminds that an Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to the Election Law has already been formed in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and that negotiations at the highest political level, which would define key political solutions, should support the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group.
Izetbegović also explained the need to expand the format by the necessity of the existence of two-thirds support in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH for any solution related to changes to the Constitution of BiH. He also warns that, in addition to an expert, advisory and observational role, strong political mediation of the United States and the European Union is necessary. Without this mediation, the SDA President warns, the negotiations will inevitably turn into a platform for the parties' election campaign.
“As I pointed out before, through the implementation of all judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of BiH, it is necessary to preserve and improve the sensitive balance of civil and ethnic on which the BiH Constitution is based. The solution must be such that all citizens, in every part of BiH, are provided with passive and active voting rights, i.e. that all types of discrimination are eliminated. It is a European standard that the EU strongly and persistently insists on, demanding the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, with a warning that any solution that further deepens the ethnic divisions in the country is unacceptable,” the letter states.
In addition of the letter, Izetbegović also submitted an SDA review of the HDZ's proposal to amend the BiH Constitution and Election Law, with a detailed explanation of why parts of the proposal are unacceptable, and the SDA's proposal to implement the Mostar Political Agreement.
According to the proposal, judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, such as the Sejdić-Finci case, would be resolved by deleting ethnic prefixes for members of the BiH Presidency, by electing two BiH Presidency members from the Federation of BiH and one from the RS entity, as well as the possibilities of indirect or direct choice are provided.
When it comes to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, the possibility of electing members of all three constituent peoples, regardless of which entity they reside in, and the possibility of electing members of the Others.
The number of delegates in the caucuses would increase from the existing five to six, and another caucus with three delegates would be formed, in which members from the ranks of Others would be elected. Five Bosniaks, five Croats, two Serbs and two delegates from the ranks of Others would be elected from the Federation of BiH, while four Serbs would be elected from the RS entity, and one Bosniak, one Croat and one from the ranks of Others.
The key intervention would relate to the competencies of the House of Peoples, according to which those competencies would be reduced exclusively to the protection of vital national interests, in accordance with the catalog of vital national interests established by the Constitution of BiH. Should the powers of the House of Peoples be reduced, the introduction of a caucus of Others would not be necessary.
The reduction of powers is also envisaged for the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, and that House would decide on issues from the catalog of vital national interests determined by the FBiH Constitution. This would also resolve the issue of the existing asymmetry between the competencies of the House of Peoples of FBiH and the Council of Peoples of RS.
During the election of the President and Vice President of the Federation of BiH, the possibility of candidacy and election would be open to the delegates from the caucus of Others.
(FENA) A. B.
