Čović announced coalition negotiations on the Election Law: Talks with OHR and US Embassy already underway

(Patria) - HDZ President Dragan Čović announced that negotiations on the BiH Election Law will begin soon, emphasizing that 'legitimate representation' is the priority of all priorities.

He said that the leaders of the ruling parties at the state level will hold talks on amending the Election Law by the end of the month.

“We waited to finish all other laws, I have said this many times, on courts, conflict of interest, money laundering prevention. Two sensitive laws remain, extremely important for us, which is this Election Law, we have left six months, of course, legitimate representation is there and we will talk about it publicly.

Our colleagues have spoken with representatives of the OHR, I spoke with the US Ambassador two or three days ago, preparations are being intensively conducted these days. We will very soon sit down at the table through the working bodies concerning the Election Law and present our proposals. The other two sides will present theirs. For us, the priority in amending the Election Law is legitimate representation. The priority of all priorities. The Presidency, the Houses of Peoples, of course, there are other things that need to be changed in the Election Law and we will take that into account, these technical aspects, the integrity of the electoral process, but what will be more significant for integrity than legitimate representation. If someone deceives the public and represents one constituent people, then that is the greatest threat to the integrity of the electoral process,” Čović stated.

Čović did not want to comment on Milorad Dodik's statements to Croatian Nacional, in which he spoke about what would be good for Croats - and that is the formation of Herceg-Bosna.

“Nothing bothers me, it's part of politics, the outsmarting of political actors. We need to be, and I think we are, responsible enough not to fall into such traps anymore, which is why I am not commenting on this at all. We will sit down together again, I think on November 22nd, we will all gather to make a step forward, to agree on these five laws that we need, to create legal certainty in BiH, so we will deal with that. And for what is needed by Croats, there is HDZ and HNS, legitimate representatives of Croats who will know how to protect their interests, but in our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina, I don't know who it bothers when I say, my homeland BiH, there are obviously people who think a little differently,” stated the HDZ leader.