New laws hard to expect before October: Parliament a political arena, quorum increasingly lacking!

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - From an already sparse agenda, which contained only a few amendments to laws, a number of items were removed at the last session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, because the competent commissions did not meet and provide the necessary opinions.

The commissions do not meet for reasons known only to the deputies who do not attend the sessions, so due to the lack of a quorum, they cannot be held. Thus, the session of the House of Representatives itself was interrupted, because at one point there was no quorum. 

What we can expect from the BiH Parliament until the elections in October is difficult to specify, but it is a fact that less and less serious work is being done. The Parliament is becoming a political arena, where forces are measured ahead of the elections.

Sadik Ahmetović, a deputy of the Independent Bloc, has been warning for some time about the lack of a parliamentary majority, which hinders work.

- There has been no parliamentary majority for a long time. No one has even bothered to establish one, at least on important issues for the state of BiH. The impression has been created that the state is not important, that position and privileges are important.

As time passes, nothing important or significant is placed on the Parliament's agenda, nor is there enough political will to do anything to make life in BiH better.

At recent parliamentary sessions, the already modest agenda is halved during the session itself, due to commissions not meeting. The only healthy and normal solution is not to convene sessions, because they make no sense, and we would save money. Salaries for parliamentarians, including mine, should be reduced to the average personal income. Because what we now have in Parliament is a caricature and a reflection of the inability to run the state – says Ahmetović.

Saša Magazinović (SDP) points out that in this term, the Parliament was a hostage to the inaction of the Council of Ministers.

Relevant data show that the last row in the parliamentary hall was more active than the Council of Ministers when it comes to filling the agenda of the highest legislative body in BiH.

Had it not been for the deputies, some sessions would have been completely empty and contentless. The story about the election year preventing work is a mere farce and a search for excuses for non-workers. Those who have worked so far will work until the elections. Those who have not worked so far will not work in the next few months either. Citizens and voters recognize both – says Magazinović.

For the record, the salaries of BiH parliamentarians are mostly higher than 5,400 KM, which means that representatives and delegates in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH receive salaries amounting to eight average salaries of BiH workers, placing them on the list of the highest-paid parliamentarians in Europe.

The most questions in this term were asked by Damir Arnaut (191), followed by Saša Magazinović (113), Denis Bećirović (107), Senad Šepić (107) and Maja Gasal-Vražalica (90). These five representatives asked a total of 608 parliamentary questions, while the remaining 37 representatives asked a total of 515 questions.

Representatives Asim Sarajlić, Željko Komšić, Đorđo Krčmar, Juvan Vukovljak and Milica Marković did not ask a single question at the sessions of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH during this term.