Party for BiH: Talks under the blackmail of HDZ BiH and SNSD can only produce a rotten compromise

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Main Committee of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) at its constitutive session in Tuzla, in addition to electing new leadership, adopted a series of conclusions concerning current topics - Amendment of the Constitution and the Election Law, state property and the electricity sector. 

Amendment of the Constitution and the Election Law

The Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina believes that the manner and circumstances under which talks on amendments to the Constitution and the Election Law are being conducted guarantee from the outset that no success can be achieved, the party's statement says.

"The talks being conducted under the blackmail of blocking the formation of government in the Federation of BiH by the HDZ since 2018 and the blocking of decision-making in BiH institutions by the SNSD can only produce a rotten compromise that will make the state even less functional than it is under the current constitutional order. The High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to ensure the implementation of the civilian part of the Dayton Agreement, which is currently being directly violated by the SNSD and the HDZ, and it is his exclusive responsibility to do so, and not, together with the international community, to push and pressure those who respect the Dayton Agreement to make concessions to those who do not respect it.
- Instead of forcing those who respect the Dayton Constitution, which is dysfunctional due to ethnic brakes and blockades, to incorporate even more such blocking mechanisms into legislation, the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina reiterates its clear demands aimed at eliminating discrimination on all grounds, both in the Constitution and in the Election Law," the Party for BiH states.

They add that it is necessary to work on a thorough reform of the Constitution and, consequently, of the electoral legislation, with the aim of harmonizing these regulations with international law and the accepted ratified Conventions, especially the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

"The Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina advocates for a civic concept of organization in which all citizens have equal rights, to vote and to be elected, without any discrimination, to remove blockades in the processes of democratic decision-making expressed through entity voting in the BiH Parliament," the statement says. 

They emphasize that the state of BiH should, regarding internal administrative organization, be organized in a way that it has regions based on natural, economic, geographical and communication features that, as such, have functioned naturally throughout history, even today when administrative borders were forcibly and unnaturally drawn by the Dayton Agreement. 

"Decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, as well as decisions of the European Court of Human Rights related to BiH, must be implemented, thereby proving that the rule of law is in force in this country. State property is persistently, through the model of resolving state property, and especially public goods owned by all citizens of BiH, by the policy from the smaller BH entity, insisting on turning the state into a so-called state union. By depriving the BiH Parliament of the right and obligation to adopt the Law on the Use and Management of State Property, this policy imposes a model of distribution of that property between sub-state arrangements of entities, cantons and the Brčko District. Such a model would ultimately confirm the anti-Dayton claim about the non-existence of the state continuity of BiH from Article 1 of Annex 4, and reduce BiH sovereignty to the claim 'that there is no BiH outside the entities' and that it is a so-called composite state. It can be reasonably assumed that the further political action of the creators of such a claim would move in the direction of its dissolution according to the model of the defunct state union of Serbia and Montenegro. Such a model would enable the smaller BH entity, the RS, to be in a process of dissolution of a referendum type, rather than a unilateral, legally violent and anti-constitutional process of secession," the Party for BiH states.  

As they state, the Party for BiH expects that all declared parties in BiH as so-called Pro-Bosnian-Herzegovinian parties recognize the ongoing and subsequent processes and thwart their possible execution and success. The Party for BiH continues to call on the BiH Parliament to, simultaneously with the adoption of the Law on the Use and Management of State Property, immediately proceed with the adoption of the Law on Denationalization and Restitution of Property in BiH. Any solution that would be only a distribution of state property, without the adoption of the Law in the BiH Parliament, would be an arbitrary renunciation of the state subjectivity and identity of the state of BiH, which would be a predictable path to its disappearance. 

Electricity sector

"All miners should be employees of Elektroprivreda BiH. Elektroprivreda BiH should not buy coal from mines it owns. Instead of seven mines and two thermal power plants (a total of 9 managements), it is necessary to form two production companies. Thermal Power Plant Tuzla with its associated mines and Thermal Power Plant Kakanj with its associated mines, which have electricity as their final product. The thermal power plant in this form should have one management, one director, and the associated mines executive directors. In addition to these two production units within the Elektroprivreda Concern, there should also be a third: Hydroelectric Power Plants on the Neretva, which would also include the Podveležje wind farm. All employees of Elektroprivreda BiH receive their salary from the sale of electricity, and there is no need for miners to receive theirs from the sale of coal to Elektroprivreda BiH," are some of the messages from the Main Committee of the Party for BiH.

From this party, they add that instead of through increasing the price of electricity for citizens and the economy, the debts of the mines should be resolved by a special consolidation law whereby the debt to the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund would be converted into shares of this Fund in Elektroprivreda BiH as a joint-stock company. 

"Elektroprivreda BiH, due to the resources it manages, must be a profitable company, and from the profit invest in new capacities. Citizens and the economy should have favorable prices because our country is rich in energy potentials whose utilization is still below 50%," it adds. 

At the session of the Main Committee of SBiH in Tuzla, in addition to the current president Semir Efendić, after 10 years since addressing a political gathering, the founder of the party, Dr. Haris Silajdžić, also spoke.