Der Standard: Čović's HDZ has Russia's support in amending the Election Law of BiH

(Patria) - A new round of negotiations on the reform of the Election Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, initiated by the European Union and the United States, begins this week.

Previous negotiations have yielded no results, writes the Austrian "Der Standard".

In addition to technical changes to prevent fraud that do not require constitutional amendments, the Croatian nationalist HDZ wants to ensure that in the future only one of its representatives can sit in the Presidency of the state as the Croatian member, the Austrian newspaper states.

Bosniak and Croatian members of the state Presidency are directly elected by the citizens of the Federation, and the Serb member by the citizens of Republika Srpska.

HDZ criticizes that the Croatian member is also elected by non-Croats. The current position is held by the social democratically oriented "non-nationalist" Željko Komšić, who was elected by "non-nationalists" in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The BiH Constitution stipulates that the state Presidency includes a Bosniak, a Croatian, and a Serb representative.

However, these representatives can be elected by all citizens of BiH – regardless of whether they belong to a certain ethnic group or not. "De facto", the Serb member is currently elected by Serbs, the Bosniak member by Bosniaks, but the Croatian member is not elected by the majority of Croats.

Although this does not constitute discrimination and is constitutional, it remains politically unacceptable to many Croats.

HDZ has abandoned its previous proposal to form "ad hoc" electoral units. This would mean that the Croatian representative should be elected primarily by those living in predominantly Croatian areas.

The new German government, like the old one, has made it clear that, given the existing ethnopolitical composition of the country, further ethnic segregation will not be supported. "Ad hoc" electoral units would also violate the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Now HDZ proposes that after the members of the state presidency are elected by the citizens, they should be "confirmed" in the House of Peoples.

The Croatian member of the Presidency should also receive the support of the majority of delegates in the Croat Caucus of the House of Peoples. According to this model, the citizens' election could subsequently be "corrected" and Komšić would have no chance.

The strongest Bosniak party, SDA, has already stated that this model would in no way correspond to European values. The previous election by citizens would then be a farce, states "Standard".

However, SDA and HDZ could agree that two members of the Presidency (Bosniak and Croatian) would be elected by the federal parliament in the future. But then the Serb member of the Presidency would also have to be elected by the parliament in Republika Srpska.

However, the leader of the largest Serb nationalist party, SNSD, Milorad Dodik, has rejected this proposal. Therefore, a compromise in this matter seems unlikely.

SDA also seeks the unblocking of the House of Peoples in the Federation as part of the overall solution. HDZ has been vetoing laws there for years and refusing to form a new federal government. HDZ wants to ensure the fulfillment of its other demands.

So far, only one day has been spent discussing the possibilities of the federal parliament functioning again in the elections law negotiations. SDA would like to limit the possibility of veto in the House of Peoples to ensure better functioning.

The stance of the negotiators from the EU and the US has been criticized by BiH citizens as "one-sided". Angelina Eichhorst from the European External Action Service has been particularly criticized for primarily supporting HDZ's positions.

This may also be related to the fact that HDZ has been successfully trying to influence BiH through its sister party in Croatia for years. HDZ from Croatia is part of the powerful European People's Party and has influenced other European parties through its lobbying efforts.

Interference from the neighborhood

It is unclear why Croatia is interfering in the affairs of a neighboring country at all, although Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković is behaving much more moderately and "European" than Croatian President Zoran Milanović.

The Dayton General Framework Agreement – which was also signed by Croatia and the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) – requires "that the contracting parties shall in particular fully respect the sovereign equality, settle disputes by peaceful means and refrain from any action against the political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Invoking sovereignty and political independence seems relevant to the current situation. This is because the principle particularly applies to Bosnia and Herzegovina's right to choose its political system without any interference from another state. It is also unclear why the EU allows Croatia to intervene.

The concerns of HDZ in BiH are supported not only by neighboring Croatia but also by the Russian government, which also supports other nationalists in Southeastern Europe.

In any case, the ideas for changing the election law and the constitution put forward by parties other than HDZ have not even been discussed in the EU and US negotiations. However, SDA is under pressure from the US government to agree to a compromise.

On the other hand, it has lost votes in the past elections and certainly does not want to appear as a "traitor" to its supporters.

However, non-nationalist parties are calling for the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, because in BiH Jews, Roma, members of other minorities, and those citizens who do not feel they belong to any ethnic group, cannot even run for certain positions.

Some members of the European Parliament are also calling for these judgments of the European Court to be implemented first, and for the EU and the US to focus on them, rather than on HDZ's demands, concludes "Standard", reports SB.