YEARS OF DECEPTION Why you shouldn't trust Magazinović and SDP when they claim they won't support the HDZ's election law

(Patria) - Saša Magazinović, a Member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated in a public address that he will not vote for amendments to the BiH Election Law.

"I am one of the many people in our country who are discriminated against in a way that they do not have the right to run for the Presidency of BiH and the House of Peoples. The European Court of Human Rights has been clear in its rulings.

I never refuse to discuss the removal of discrimination in the Constitution and amendments to the Election Law in that context. I will always gladly have that discussion based on the binding rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. It can be done immediately, but I still think that at this moment the priority issues are security, unblocking institutions, and countering attacks on the Constitution.

As for the current proposal for amendments to the Election Law that is in the parliamentary procedure – if anyone thinks that I/we will vote for a law after which I will continue to be discriminated against, they are gravely mistaken," Magazinović stated.

However, who is truly mistaken, and can Saša Magazinović and the SDP be trusted when they claim they will not vote for the Election Law proposal according to the wishes of the HDZ?

If Magazinović's efforts during the Neum negotiations are anything to go by, when he publicly and privately assured the public and all political actors that the issue of the Election Law was settled and that the HDZ and Dragan Čović had received what they wanted, then Magazinović and the SDP cannot be trusted on their word, as they were clearly motivated by misleading the public for party political interests, to the detriment of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As we had the opportunity to witness, the Election Law and the BiH Presidency were not delivered in Neum, and it was precisely the SDP a year later that accepted the suspension of the Constitution of the Federation of BiH and a partial amendment to the election law regarding the election of delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, which caused enormous damage to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and civic political parties.

Saša Magazinović did not condemn the SDP's attack on the state and the idea of a civic state of BiH, which was brutally damaged by the double imposition by Christian Schmidt, with a single word at the time.

Those in the know are not surprised by Magazinović's stance, considering that this very SDP representative was the head of the SDP and HDZ working group for amendments to the Election Law back in 2012, which resulted in the SDP agreeing to the unequal value of a vote and the appearance of that phrase in the public discourse.

The fact that Magazinović and the SDP knowingly misled the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (and gravely so) is also evidenced by the SDP's declaration of non-acceptance of Schmidt's proposal for amendments to the Election Law from July 2022, which was presented in the Federal Parliament, the day after Schmidt's July attempt to impose the Election Law, i.e., the day of the protests that were held in front of the OHR in July 2022.

By disseminating the declaration against imposition and participating (albeit in smaller numbers) in citizens' protests, the SDP successfully misled the public and sent a message that they were against the very imposition of the Election Law that they would wholeheartedly accept two months later on election night.

Here is the text of the declaration, which contained the following:

- Responsible institutions, bodies, agencies, parties, and individuals are called upon to suspend, repeal, and abandon all forms of action that encourage the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the principle of ethno-territorial dominance;

- Relevant actors in the European, regional, and domestic legal-political order are called upon to respect and urgently implement the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Dervo Sejdić, Jakob Finci, Azra Zornić, Ilijaz Pilav, Samir Šljak, and Svetozar Pudarić;

- The High Representative is called upon to refrain from imposing a decision that would violate the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the aforementioned rulings;

- The OHR and the signatories of the Dayton Peace Agreement are called upon to respect and consistently apply the provisions of this agreement;

- A call is made for the consistent and full implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which, among other things, stipulates that the parties will ensure that refugees and displaced persons are enabled to return safely;

- A call is made for the consistent application of legal regulations that prohibit segregation and discrimination;

- Authorities in Croatia are called upon to ensure equal representation in the Parliament, as required by the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Croatia.

The SDP, led by Saša Magazinović, has not honored any of the points from its own declaration. Moreover, for months after Schmidt's double imposition, SDP officials, including Saša Magazinović, publicly mocked critics of Schmidt's impositions and enjoyed the fruits of the newly acquired power through imposition.

Magazinović has at no point drawn the attention of his party colleagues to this type of inconsistency, nor has he expressed regret for deceiving SDP voters, as a significant number of them were against Schmidt's impositions and the deepening of ethnic discrimination in the election law.

For the sake of power, the SDP has managed to deceive the entire civic public. It has been shown that the SDP's earlier, pre-election opposition to amendments to the election law according to the wishes of the HDZ, and their joining of citizens' protests, were tactical rather than ideological and value-based.

Therefore, today, when proposals are once again being sent to the State Parliament that would give the HDZ, Dragan Čović, and ultimately the Republic of Croatia, the opportunity to manage the state sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through an election of members of the BiH Presidency that they favor and which is contrary to all democratic principles, Saša Magazinović and the SDP cannot and must not be trusted when they again want to mislead the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina with claims that they will not support the handover of Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty into the hands of Croatia.

If the citizens believe them, they will laugh in their faces again, just as they laughed after Schmidt's double imposition.

(M.T.)