Čović yearns for Herzeg-Bosnia, final negotiations on Election Law by December 2

(Patria) - Dragan Čović, president of HDZ BiH, said at today's press conference that final negotiations on amendments to the Election Law will take place next week. He added that there is no compromise on the constituent peoples, legitimate representation, and the Constitution of BiH.

"We will negotiate exclusively on the four elements agreed upon at the last interrupted meeting, which continues on Monday, November 29, and should be permanently concluded on December 2. One of the key topics is the models for electing members of the Presidency and the House of Peoples, as a continuation of the agreement from Mostar in June 2020, when we implemented one agreement regarding Mostar and defined another on how to ensure legitimate representation of constituent peoples, nothing more than that. The second thing we agreed on is to resolve this in a way that frees us from any form of discrimination, meaning we must implement all rulings of the Court in Strasbourg, and before that, our Constitutional Court in BiH," said Čović.

He stated that they must ensure that 17 Croats from the Croat Club in the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament are elected by Croats.

"What sense does it make for someone from Goražde to elect anyone in the name of Croats? We know that neither Croats elect him nor is he a Croat," said Čović.

The third agreed-upon thing, Čović notes, is to possibly make limited amendments to the Constitution in line with what is agreed regarding amendments to the Election Law.

"And on that, HDZ has a very concrete stance, and those who believed this was an opportunity to radically and dramatically change the Constitution, it is clear that this is impossible to do, although I would like it because I think this state can be made much more efficient, fairer, more appropriate for the times we live in, but we do not have the conditions for that. I am glad that we can enter this negotiation process respecting the documents we have adopted ourselves. Just recently, my colleague Izetbegović and I signed an agreement concerning amendments to the Election Law, and that was not easy to do. We must finish this, and I assure you that we will finish it in a non-election year, and we have very little time left. Otherwise, we have countless problems," said Čović.

Čović also commented on the statement by SDA president Bakir Izetbegović that HDZ BiH will not get anything, saying there is no need to comment on such statements.

He added that no one needs to give anything to Croats because everything is defined by the constitution.

"I would be happier if Herzeg-Bosnia had remained in the Constitution of BiH or if we had entered as three republics, but we did not. Today it would be more rational to talk about civic concepts if we had three federal units, in each of which civic concepts could be represented, and everyone would be satisfied," stated Čović.