Key battle for the Election Law and its recipe: Either everyone to the negotiating table, or no one!

By Amina Čorbo-Zećo

---

Officials of American and European diplomacy Matthew Palmer and Angelina Eichhorst will soon arrive in BiH for a new round of negotiations with representatives of political parties, whose goal is to agree on amendments to the Election Law of BiH.

Earlier, they had to cancel one visit because all parties considered pro-Bosnian presented a unified stance that there would be no negotiations as long as the institutions of BiH were blocked and as long as Milorad Dodik pursued separatist policies and threatened secession.

The SDA previously called for a unified, concrete, and decisive political response from pro-Bosnian political forces.

"Such an approach is also needed in discussions about the reform of the BiH Constitution and election legislation, as well as a joint response to the dilemma of whether to discuss this topic at all until the work of state institutions is unblocked and the attack on the constitutional and legal order is stopped," the SDA announced on December 13 last year.

The circumstances that led to the suspension of negotiations, in which Dragan Čović still maintains a maximalist approach and demands everything, with the full support of Dodik, are still the same. The blockade of BiH institutions continues, and Dodik is not giving up an inch of his ideas about disempowering BiH institutions and returning competencies to Republika Srpska. 

HDZ and SNSD continue to behave identically in the entire situation, only the balance of power within the pro-Bosnian bloc is currently changing, which can be dangerous for the state of BiH!

Messages are coming from the SDA that they will participate in the talks; first, Safet Softić crudely and ineptly announced a compromise (and it is worth mentioning that he also announced withdrawal from negotiations last year), and then messages from media close to the SDA arrived stating that if pro-Bosnian parties do not engage in negotiations, they are acting the same way as Milorad Dodik.

However, it is clear to any normal person that it is not the same to refuse Palmer in negotiations and adopt conclusions in the RS Assembly that undermine the state or do not recognize the High Representative in BiH and belittle his significant role.

So what is actually happening?

The current situation should also be sought in the so-called non-paper that Palmer distributed in embassies in Sarajevo, and the plan was to "focus parties on areas of consensus." After that, the agreement of SDP, NiP, SBB, and NS was stated to negotiate based on conditional models and to demonstrate that no party in FBiH, except DF, shares SDA's insistence on linking the discussion on electoral reform to the functionality of the Federation of BiH. 

The goal was to distance civic options from the more right-wing ones. And now the answer to the key question is very clear. If pro-Bosnian parties do not have a unified goal, a compromise that would please Čović would mean the end of the state and the introduction of apartheid; it would mean warming relations between Bosniaks and Croats, but also the end of democracy in BiH.

The SDP remains firm in its stance, which is justified, that negotiations should not take place because the climate is not right and the institutions of BiH are still blocked, but another question arises now. Is it wise to let SDA negotiate alone, and neither NiP nor SBB will refuse to go to the negotiating table! Distancing from the table of civic options would mean that Čović can more easily achieve his goal.

Because, the very turn within SDA to go to negotiations means that they are ready for compromise and possible concessions, then someone must prevent them from doing so. There is suspicion that they would not invite others to witness their betrayal. Therefore, claiming that something has already been agreed upon at this moment is dangerous, meaning all those who know that 'something has been agreed' are obliged to tell the public what it is, and ultimately prevent it!

Because after this battle, all the shouting and gloating of 'we told you they had already agreed' will be irrelevant. 

The recipe is very simple – either everyone to the negotiating table, or no one!

Anything else means the realization of Čović's plan, which Dodik is actively helping, and for that reason, he is ready, along with the charade with Vučić, to return to the institutions of BiH!