SDA: If the document from Laktaši is implemented, the damage will be irreparable

(Patria) - The SDA said today that the agreement between the leaders of the SNSD, HDZ and the Troika parties "reached on Dodik's private estate represents a new danger to the interests of the state and Bosniaks, especially in the territory of the RS entity".

As they stated from the SDA, in the document titled "Agreement of leaders of political parties in BiH at the meeting held on January 18 in Laktaši", which was published by SDP president Nermin Nikšić, there are a number of contentious points.

"If they were to be implemented, they would cause irreparable damage, even greater than that caused by the SDP a few years ago when it voted for the Law on Residence. The published document confirms that the Troika parties have been deceiving citizens for years by claiming they want fair, honest and transparent elections. When they need to confirm their positions concretely, by voting for the SDA's proposed amendments to the Election Law that would enable this, the SDP, NIP and Our Party reach an agreement with the SNSD and HDZ not to support that law in the House of Peoples of the PSBiH, even though they supported it in the House of Representatives," they say from the SDA.

In doing so, as they state from the SDA, they are clearly telling citizens that their own chairs and the interests of the SNSD and HDZ are much more important than fair elections.

"Furthermore, they are obviously buying time and want to prevent the High Representative from imposing amendments to the law relating to the integrity and transparency of elections. Also, by agreeing to raise the electoral threshold to 4 or 5 percent, they are putting Bosniaks in the RS entity in a situation where they will have their representatives in only a few municipalities and will call into question their participation in the entity assembly and the Council of Peoples, as well as the election of Bosniak state representatives from the RS entity," they state from the SDA.

They add that there are a number of other contentious points in the document related to the election law, which will be subject to special analyses, and will likely also provoke reactions from international organizations.

"It is particularly concerning that the Troika agrees to apply experiences from Serbia in the functioning of the Central Election Commission, a country where every election leads to protests and reactions from the democratic world due to numerous irregularities. That the Troika continues its servile policy towards Dodik and Čović is also confirmed by the part of the agreement on the distribution of unallocated excise revenues between the entities, which favors the RS entity and completely excludes the Brčko District from the distribution, which is unacceptable," emphasize from the SDA.

It is indicative, they claim, that the Troika has already on several occasions accommodated Dodik in the distribution of money, as it did in the case of the purchase of a building for the needs of the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO) from his godfather.

"The same is true with the distribution of 37 million in revenues of the Regulatory Agency for Communications (RAK), where the Troika, although populistically talking about saving BHRT, agrees that the state public broadcaster receives only 40 percent of the funds, instead of the majority of that money being used to support this very media house. Instead of BHRT receiving at least 60 or 70 percent of the funds, the majority of the money will be directed towards media in the entities, and not public broadcasters. Thus, according to the agreement, the entity governments will decide which media will receive the money. Given the Troika's previous attitude towards the HDZ, it is very likely that part of the money will be redirected to Čović's TV 'Herceg Bosne', as well as to private media that serve the Troika," concludes the SDA statement.