Session of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH adjourned

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Members of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina today adjourned the session of this house, after it was determined that there was no quorum. Mladen Bosić, the Chair of this house, had also scheduled a meeting of the extended Collegium, where the final decision to adjourn the session was made.

Apart from questions and answers to members of the Council of Ministers and the adoption of the agenda, the representatives of the House of Representatives had effectively not even started working.

Problems arose after representatives of SNSD and DNS refused to participate in the further work of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH due to the fact that their initiative for the dismissal of BiH Security Minister Dragan Mektić was removed from today's agenda.

Some representatives claimed that there was no "quorum for decision-making" given that a sufficient number of representatives from the BiH entity of Republika Srpska were not present at the session. Additional confusion was caused by the lateness of Collegium member and representative of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, Borjana Krišto, who later appeared in the hall of the State Parliament.

Incidentally, the quorum in this house consists of 22 representatives.

Representative Damir Arnaut stated that the Constitution of BiH does not contain any "quorum for decision-making," but only a quorum for work, which existed even without the representatives from SNSD and DNS. The head of the SDS Representative Club, Aleksandra Pandurević, said that there is an authentic interpretation by the OHR and that a conclusion can be drawn from it that there was no quorum for decision-making at today's session.

Representative Momčilo Novaković argued differently, citing provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, stating that today's session should not continue because decisions cannot be made, i.e., laws cannot be adopted. His claims were disputed by Arnaut, who said that all conditions for decision-making had been met, emphasizing that Novaković was not citing all provisions of the Rules of Procedure.

In any case, today's session was adjourned due to a lack of quorum. Senad Šepić (NB) insisted that Chair Bosić clearly state who was absent from the session, but such requests were not granted.