Legitimacy over Legality: HDZ has SBB, what about SDA, exposure in the BiH House of Peoples!

By Ernad Metaj

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The opposition in BiH, which correctly supported the boycott of the election reform talks in BiH, was right when it asked SDA leader Bakir Izetbegović to convince them of the sincerity of the policy he is currently officially representing. The last session of the BiH House of Peoples showed that the caution was justified, where the behavior of Izetbegović himself and the SDA delegates contradicted public statements that no concessions would be made to the HDZ. At that session, SDA members stood shoulder to shoulder with SBB, which has never hidden its willingness to fulfill Čović's wishes.

Thus, the conclusions of Lidija Bradara from the HDZ, which, in addition to legitimate representation, also contain a dangerous intention to undermine the Central Election Commission (CEC), remained alive. Legitimacy over legality is the HDZ's recipe, which Bosniaks have not rejected as a possible therapy.

Thanks to the vote of Asim Sarajlić (SDA), the absence from the session of his party colleagues Bakir Izetbegović and Amir Fazlić, and the abstention of Munib Jusufović (SBB), Bradara's first conclusion received the general and entity majority.

 “We call for the urgent harmonization of election models based on the signed Political Agreement on the Principles of Amendments to the Election Law of BiH of June 17, 2020, in order to ensure the legitimate representation of the constituent peoples in the Presidency of BiH and the Houses of Peoples, and to remove all forms of established inequalities and discrimination, in accordance with the Decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH No. U-23/14 of 2014, and the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights that are still awaiting execution.”

Only SDP's Denis Bećirović was against this conclusion in the Bosniak Club. Due to the actions of SDA and SBB, the opposition of the independent delegate in the Croat Club, Zlatko Miletić, was also in vain.

With this, SDA clearly wanted to show the HDZ that there is still room for cooperation and agreement. Fortunately, there was not enough courage in SDA regarding the CEC. In that conclusion, Bradara requested the following: ”The Central Election Commission is not a legislative body, nor does it have the right to make decisions within the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. The Central Election Commission has not been elected and appointed in accordance with the provisions of the Election Law of BiH. We demand that the members of the Central Election Commission be elected and appointed based on a public competition in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the Election Law of BiH.”

The conclusion comes at a time when Dodik is publicly announcing what Čović thinks, and that is a boycott of the elections. Neither of them is prepared to risk their parties not participating in the elections, as this proved to be a failure in Serbia. Instead, the plan is to block the work of municipal election commissions. The overthrow of the current CEC composition, which does not suit SNSD and HDZ, would only open the door further for actions that are nothing more than a coup d'état.

Sarajlić voted against it, SBB did not change its stance, because it is no secret that Jusufović blindly obeys his party leader, to whom, however, delivering the complete birthday gift to Dragan Čović is proving more difficult than expected. Regarding the CEC, according to what Dragan Čović said as the Speaker of the House of Peoples, it will be harmonized at the next sessions, because due to Izetbegović's absence, there was no third member of the collegium. As expected, Bradara's conclusions were supported by all delegates from SNSD, while SDS's Mladen Bosić was not present, although, like the SDA members, he participated in the work at the beginning of the session.

It is clear that those who supported the HDZ's conclusions will justify themselves by saying that they cannot get support in the House of Representatives, but that is hypocritical because they will hide behind the opposition there. And perhaps the game is different, as warned by Dragan Čović's holiday address, in which he was again convinced that the Election Law would ensure legitimate representation, even though the EU has confirmed that it is abandoning the mention of constitutionality, which even Croatia could not stop.