Izetbegović: Federation of BiH must be one electoral unit, no Croatian and Bosniak electoral units

(Patria) - SDA President Bakir Izetbegović commented on the agreement of the leaders of the parties forming the government at the BiH level. Speaking about the proposals for amendments to the Election Law, he told Faktor that HDZ always had different proposals and that they always started from the wrong and unconstitutional assumption that the three members of the BiH Presidency represent three constituent peoples, that a Croat in the Presidency represents Croats and therefore they should elect him.

"This is not the case, however logical it may sound to someone, and the Constitutional Court of BiH made a ruling on this matter in 2010. A Serb, a Bosniak, and a Croat in the Presidency represent the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its citizens, and all citizens must have an influence on their election. All three members of the Presidency must depend on the electoral will of all citizens, not just on the will of voters from one constituent people. Through the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, a step further has been taken towards strengthening the civic principle. We have been ordered to enable those who do not belong to the constituent peoples to have the right to be elected to the Presidency.

HDZ's proposals ignore all of the above and insist on a model whereby the prefixes Serbian, Bosniak, and Croatian will be retained, and the Croatian member will be elected only by Croats from the territory of the Federation where they constitute a majority, i.e., HNS or HDZ," says Izetbegović.

When asked what SDA will insist on regarding amendments to the Constitution and election legislation, he said:

"We cannot agree to concessions that will enable control over three vitally important state institutions to those who destabilize the state. As for the election of the members of the BiH Presidency, SDA's positions are defined in previous negotiation cycles, they are flexible and clear - the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights must be implemented, the Federation of BiH must be one electoral unit, there are no Croatian and Bosniak electoral units.

If any compromises are to be made, Bosniak interests and demands must also be taken into account, it is necessary to remove the asymmetry in the functioning of the House of Peoples in the Federation and the Council of Peoples in the RS, and to adopt a law on proportional representation based on the BiH Constitution. Citizens belonging to the Bosniak people are discriminated against, their chance of being employed in state institutions is significantly lower than that of citizens who are Serbs, and three times lower than that of citizens who are Croats. Bosniaks are actually discriminated against and endangered in various ways and at various levels in both entities.

Given that the state coalition agreed to reject SDA's proposal for amendments to the Election Law concerning the integrity of the electoral process in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament, which has already received the support of the House of Representatives, including the votes of the majority of the "Trojka" representatives, Izetbegović believes that they will try to push through their solution, but will not succeed.

"And then the High Representative will impose amendments related to the integrity and transparency of the electoral process," he concluded.