Pleho will keep his mandate after all

Newly elected BOSS representatives in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton Haris Pleho and Rasim Smajić declared themselves as Serbs in order to be elected to the House of Peoples of the Federation of BiH during its formation, and today information leaked that Pleho's mandate had been revoked because he committed fraud when declaring his nationality for this year's general elections, reports the Patria news agency.

However, the Central Election Commission denied these stories.

- I have no such information, nor that anyone's mandate will be revoked on that basis at all - Maksida Pirić, spokesperson for the CEC, told Patria.

BPS member Nermin Bjelak also declared himself as a Serb, so there was a "threat" that his mandate would also be revoked. However, as things stand, nothing will come of it.

Both Pleho and Bjelak declared themselves as "others" in the form filled out by candidates during the 2012 local elections, which stirred up the public.

Incidentally, the Election Law of BiH clearly specifies and defines that a candidate, when submitting party lists, i.e., filling out individual candidacy forms, must declare their nationality. The law states that this declaration applies to the election cycle in which the candidate list was submitted. Therefore, the declarations of Haris Pleho and Nermin Bjelak, who were listed as "others" in the 2012 local elections, cannot be changed mid-mandate according to the law, but they did so and now, at the end of July, just before the elections, declared themselves as Serbs.