The burden of creating good or bad practice lies on the judges of the Constitutional Court of the FBiH, and a temporary measure is currently an acceptable solution!

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

The Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH will convene on Monday and decide on four submissions from delegates in the House of Representatives concerning the constitutive session, but also sessions chaired by Mladen Bošković (HDZ) even though, according to the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, he did not have valid authorization, all while the resigning chairperson Mirjana Marinković Lepić sat beside him.

We hope that the judges of the Constitutional Court of the Federation are aware of the responsibility they carry and will carry depending on the decisions at the announced session. Because the future of parliamentary life and democracy in the Federation entity will depend on these decisions, and any decision made contrary to the Constitution and other norms could lead this entity into a kind of political anarchy. This could begin to break the continuity in the functioning of government, because if the attempt of the current parliamentary majority is not stopped, every subsequent one will have the right to act as it pleases.

In other words, if the judges of the Constitutional Court of the Federation, by their decision, establish a practice that it is allowed to change the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives as it suits anyone, it is clear that in the near future we could find ourselves in a situation of completely unconstitutional functioning of the Parliament.

But let's go in order. One of the decisions concerns the constitutive session of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation. At that time, the Troika, HDZ and partners, in the manner of political outlaws, took over the conduct of the constitutive session even though that session had earlier been started by the previous chairperson Mirsad Zaimović, who, after the break, clearly indicated the date for its continuation. However, the Troika and HDZ, eager for power, decided that it could be done contrary to the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure, so it is up to the judges of the Constitutional Court to take a stance on this and, if they adhere to the Constitution, prevent the repetition of similar practices.

Once the Troika and HDZ realized that the outlawry was succeeding, it did not take them long to continue with the established practice. First, chairperson Mirjana Marinković Lepić resigned for personal reasons and, based on her own interpretation of the rules, decided on her own initiative, contrary to the Rules of Procedure, to transfer the authority to conduct sessions to Mladen Bošković. Interestingly, although the Rules of Procedure require it, she did not consult or seek the consent of the other deputy chairperson.

Thus, the manner of convening the eighth extraordinary session of the House of Representatives also ended up before the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH, and it is expected that this Troika-HDZ anti-Rules of Procedure knot will be untied, because otherwise, future authorities will have established case law to which they can refer.

And at the session conducted contrary to the Rules of Procedure, based on a forced conclusion, chaired by Mladen Bošković, the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives were amended, which many characterized as an attack on democracy, freedom of parliamentary speech and work. So, a model of some Belarusian or North Korean parliament was voted on by the Troika, HDZ and partners at a session convened and conducted contrary to the Rules of Procedure.

Even then, it was clear that the Constitutional Court of the FBiH was late with some decisions, because the current parliamentary majority had obviously become emboldened to sink deeper into unconstitutionality and anti-democratic processes.

Therefore, May 27 is probably the last chance for the judges of the Constitutional Court to correct all the cardinal mistakes of the current authorities and thus save not only parliamentary life, but the entire Federation from the anarchy that will certainly ensue in the future if the judges turn a deaf ear and let everything go the way the Troika and HDZ have set!

The most elegant solution that the Constitutional Court of the FBiH can adopt in a time crunch is to respond to the request of the clubs of SDA, DF and SBiH and issue a temporary measure that will prevent greater damage and thus enable the dangerous knot concerning the constitutionality and legality of the process to be untied within a reasonable time.

Because the fact that halfway through the mandate of the Troika and HDZ's rule we have a situation with four requests for constitutional review, sessions contrary to the Rules of Procedure in an atmosphere of complete chaos, can be a clear signpost to the judges of the need to do their job as soon as possible, respecting the Constitution!