Coalition "Prvi mart": With closed lists and censuses, Bosniaks are politically disappearing in the RS

The coalition of civil society organizations "Prvi mart" warned representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina not to allow amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina that would further complicate the position of political organizations gathering returnees in both BiH entities, especially Bosniaks in the RS, who currently are the only ones with achieved political representation in the NSRS and in the state parliament, it was announced from the Coalition Prvi mart, as reported by the news agency Patria.

-We particularly emphasize the fact that closed lists completely jeopardize the possibility of forming coalitions of multiple political parties, because everyone knows that from each electoral unit we can count on a maximum of one elected candidate, whereby the first on the list remains the only one with something to fight for, while the motivation for other candidates to actively participate is lost, and consequently for the parties as well", the letter states.

"Citizens are not even familiar with the concept of the census, which means that parties that do not cross it do not participate in the distribution of mandates. Currently it is 3%, if they raise it to 5%, we could completely lose any hope of having a councilor in the Assembly of Banja Luka, in Prnjavor, Modriča, and many other places. In Prijedor, the number of elected councilors from the Bosniak people would drop from five to only two. At the level of the National Assembly of the RS, without a unified approach of all parties gathering returnees, we could not cross the census, so over time those four guaranteed Bosniak representatives would be divided between the SNSD and the SDS. Also, in the 2014 elections, we managed to secure the election of one representative of Bosniak returnees from the RS to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. If they raise it to 3%, even this minimum will not be possible to repeat", they say in the coalition "Prvi mart".

"When it comes to electoral system reforms, it is necessary to facilitate access to voting for BiH citizens abroad, but that is not even a topic of discussion. There is no alternative solution to the issue of a different approach to the functioning of polling boards, where ruling parties from the RS, through fictitious political entities, ensure complete political control over the process. The same applies to the election of members of municipal election commissions. Electoral legislation should be changed, but what is being offered can only bring deterioration", conclude from "Prvi mart".