Croatian Party of BiH: HDZ is getting out of the mud it fell into due to the idea of ethnic constituencies

The Croatian Party of BiH believes that the leadership of HDZ BiH has abandoned the amendments to the BiH Election Law as originally proposed by this party because they are aware, HS BiH believes, that HDZ's "senseless and inhumane proposals would not be supported by the majority in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, the Croatian Party of BiH believes, HDZ now wants to elegantly get out of the mud and avoid further public condemnation by shifting the blame to other parties."

The HDZ's proposal for amendments to the BiH Election Law was originally such that the Croat member of the BiH Presidency would be elected from those areas where Croats constitute the majority population, while the Bosniak member of the Presidency would be elected from areas where Bosniaks are the majority. Such a proposal was assessed as discriminatory and unacceptable for modern Europe.

One of the proposed models for electing members of the BiH Presidency that has been discussed recently is that the members of the Presidency would be elected in the BiH Parliament.

HS BiH believes that due to the fear that changes to the Election Law will not happen in a reasonable time and that he might not be re-elected as the Croat member of the Presidency through direct election, the leader of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, has offered the SDA partners his readiness to reach an agreement on the election of members of the BiH Presidency in the state Parliament.

"The Croatian Party publicly came out several months ago with a proposal that all members of the BiH Presidency be elected in both houses of the BiH Parliament, which was roughly the proposal of former European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle, who selflessly, but unfortunately unsuccessfully, helped the local leaders for months to change the infamous Election Law. At that time, the overconfident leaders of HDZ BiH robustly rejected such a model for electing members of the BiH Presidency because they had already stepped into a foolish and untranslatable adventure of demarcating ethnic constituencies in which they had excluded a large number of Croats in Bosnia and RS. The Croatian Party would welcome sincere negotiations among all parliamentary party leaders regarding the election of members of the BiH Presidency, as well as regarding the removal of disputed provisions in the Election Law concerning the election of delegates to the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, however, we fear that with their unofficial proposal regarding the model for electing members of the BiH Presidency in the BiH Parliament, the HDZ leadership, again aware that Bosniak parties will not accept their proposal which does not also address the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, only wants to elegantly get out of the mud and avoid further public condemnation for their, fortunately failed, amendments to the Election Law and shift the blame to other parties," the statement from HS BiH reads.

"Beyond any doubt, panic has set in at HDZ BiH due to the possibility, and even some announcements, that the left could once again enter the race for the Croat member of the BiH Presidency," HS BiH concludes, reports NAP.