PARLIAMENT Election of Constitutional Court judges divides coalition partners, Okić cancels session without establishing quorum

(Patria) - It is still unclear how the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, Azra Okić, made the decision to cancel today's session, for which, according to information, a sufficient number of deputies required for a quorum had arrived. Okić clearly made the decision to cancel the session under pressure, without the deputies even entering the hall to determine the exact number of deputies. In her announcement, she stated that a larger number of deputies had announced their absence, but did not specify how many or from which parties. It is evident that this is about internal games within the coalition, and she had an obligation to cancel the session until the "passions calm down". Deputies from HDZ BiH and NIP did not attend the session.

DF deputy Denniz Gratz commented on the cancellation of today's session, stating that it was rumored in parliamentary circles that NiP had refused to obey the ruling majority because they failed to "push through" their candidate for the Constitutional Court of BiH.

"That's why the session was cancelled. If that's true - and it's hard for me, after everything I've seen from Trojka, to believe it isn't - then today's cancellation of the session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament is perhaps the most accurate political portrait of the current government. The state is falling apart before their eyes. The Parliament has no quorum. Sessions are cancelled literally "on the fly". Prices are rising. Citizens are groaning and paying. The economy doesn't know what awaits it from month to month - from new taxes and contributions to improvised economic measures and complete institutional unpredictability. And the ruling coalition is falling apart over the distribution of functions and control over the judiciary," Gratz stated.

Interviews with registered candidates for the Constitutional Court of BiH are being scheduled these days, but given the circulating information, the whole thing is turning into a mere farce, and the "most successful" candidates have already been agreed upon.

"Nermin Nikšić has been acting like a political wanderer for months in the wilderness of BiH governance - while the system collapses before his eyes. Sabina Ćudić organizes debates at faculties, and the parliamentary majority in which she participates is unable to organize even a session of the FBiH Parliament. Dino Konaković talks about "processes under control", quotes poems and lectures everyone around him, and is unable to fulfill even his own promises made to cadres who were obviously promised positions in the judiciary. And that is perhaps the most dangerous part of the whole story. Because citizens increasingly feel that the most important positions in the judiciary are not decided based on knowledge, integrity, and independence, but on coalition blackmail, party quotas, and political bargaining.

If the FBiH Parliament is indeed blocked today due to the struggle over candidates for the Constitutional Court, then we are no longer talking about "childhood illnesses of the coalition". Then we are talking about a government that has completely lost its political compass, institutional authority, and elementary sense of responsibility towards the citizens," Gratz stated.

The SDA Deputies' Club also reacted, emphasizing that the ruling coalition must explain to the public why the session was not held, who is responsible for the new humiliation of the FBiH Parliament, and why the citizens of the FBiH are once again paying the price for their incompetence.