Will the lottery decide: CEC again recognizes PDP's 'disputed ballot' for the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament

(Patria) - The Central Election Commission of BiH has again recognized the 'disputed ballot' of the PDP list for the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly from Republika Srpska.

Namely, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina previously partially granted the appeal of PDP and confirmed that their right to free elections was violated, all in connection with the election of delegates to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. After that decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the Court of BiH returned everything to the CEC for a new decision, Nezavisne novine reports.

"We are factually returning to the beginning when the material from the National Assembly, or its commission, was submitted, and I believe that we are now determining the results as we have always determined them," said Željko Bakalar, a member of the CEC.

This decision to 'recognize' PDP's disputed ballot was voted for by five votes to two against. Irena Hadžiabdić, president of the CEC, and Vlado Rogić, a member of the CEC, voted against.

In essence, now that the CEC has again recognized the 'disputed ballot', the PDP list and one of the SNSD lists have the same number of votes, i.e., 12, and how things will proceed further is still unclear, i.e., whether SNSD will appeal this decision again, or whether the lottery will decide on the fifth delegate to the House of Peoples.

According to the latest decision of the CEC, Milan Radović's list, based on which Želimir Nešković was elected to the House of Peoples, received 16 votes, Ana Ljubojević's list, based on which Nikola Špirić entered the House of Peoples, received 13 votes, while Igor Žunić and Mladen Ilić's lists, based on which Sredoje Nović and Radovan Kovačević were elected to the House of Peoples, received 14 votes each. Ranka Perić Romić's list and the Party of Democratic Progress list, according to the new decision of the CEC, each have 12 votes. Previously, the CEC decided on several occasions that the 'disputed ballot' was valid, but the Court of BiH did not accept such a decision based on SNSD's appeals.

In essence, according to unofficial information, now that the CEC has recognized the 'disputed ballot', the fifth delegate to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly will be decided by drawing lots, i.e., the lottery. In the event that Ranka Perić Romić's list is drawn from the drum, delegate Snježana Novaković Bursać will remain in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, while in the event that the PDP list is drawn, Nenad Vuković from this party will take his seat in the House of Peoples.

"I will not support this decision. I will vote in the same way as before in all four cases, regardless of who was the one who appealed or who was later allowed to appeal. The subject of this dispute is whether the ballot is valid or invalid. In all cases, I voted that it is invalid and I will continue to vote that it is invalid, all based on 20 years of experience. As far as I'm concerned, when I saw the ballot, it was clear to me that it was an invalid ballot because the person had crossed out the ballot," said Vlado Rogić, a member of the Central Election Commission.

As a reminder, when electing delegates to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, the PDP list officially, according to the decision of the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the National Assembly of RS, received 11 votes; however, one ballot was disputed. This ballot was declared invalid by nine members of the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the National Assembly of RS, but later, upon PDP's appeal, the Central Election Commission of BiH decided that it could be unambiguously determined for whom the vote was cast on that ballot, and accepted that ballot as valid. In that case, the PDP list for the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly would have 12 votes, the same as the SNSD list, and in that case, the draw should have decided on the delegate to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

However, SNSD appealed the CEC's decision, and the Court of BiH, specifically the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, ultimately had the final say and ruled that the disputed ballot was indeed disputed and ordered the CEC to amend its decision, so that at the end of the mandate, the delegate to the House of Peoples went to the SNSD list, which had 12 votes.

The essence of the new ruling of the Constitutional Court of BiH is that PDP, as a party to the entire process, was not allowed to participate as a party before the Court of BiH.

"The Constitutional Court considers that the mere fact that the appellant could not participate in the proceedings in which the decision affecting (also) his electoral rights was challenged indicates that he did not enjoy even theoretical, let alone practical, protection of his right to free elections. Therefore, the Constitutional Court considers that, in the circumstances of the specific case, the appellant should have been allowed to participate in the court proceedings as an interested party. In such a case, the appellant would also have to respect the strict deadlines set by the relevant laws, and any potential delay in the electoral process would be to his detriment. This further means that the Constitutional Court cannot accept that the need to ensure the efficiency of the electoral process is a sufficient reason to prevent the appellant from participating in proceedings concerning his electoral rights, without any objective signs that the appellant will actually delay the process," it is stated in the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH.