Suspending Democracy: HDZ Holds Federation of BiH in its Grip

(Patria) - Delegate in the House of Peoples Aljoša Čampara submitted an initiative on February 1st to initiate the procedure for electing the President and Vice-President of FBiH. Although he himself does not believe there is readiness to proceed with the implementation of the 2018 election results with such a significant delay, Čampara believes this initiative is necessary to officially show who the obstructionist is.

- It's all taking too long and it's a mockery of democracy. I believe HDZ is the most responsible because from the start they have linked the implementation of election results to the adoption of the Election Law, Čampara told us.

HDZ does not want to implicitly admit that they are obstructing the election of the President and Vice-President of FBiH, which is a prerequisite for changing the FBiH Government.

- I don't know who is to blame, but I believe that before the implementation of this initiative, a political agreement on a parliamentary majority must be reached. It is no secret that HDZ is also seeking an agreement on amending the Election Law, primarily because we have witnessed an attempt to forcibly push Croats out of power, Ivo Tadić, president of the Croat Caucus in the House of Peoples of FBiH, told us.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, Mirsad Zaimović, says that SDA is in favor of starting the procedure for electing the President and Vice-President of FBiH, but that the Croat Caucus does not want to provide a candidate. In practice, it is possible for any caucus to propose a list of candidates from all three constituent peoples with one-third of the votes, but given that HDZ controls the Croat Caucus, it would be impossible to adopt a harmonized list that would go into parliamentary procedure.

- Believe me, it is also in SDA's interest because the FBiH Government has lost two Bosniak ministers, Zaimović said.

This indirectly admits that the mini-Mostarization of FBiH practically benefits HDZ the most, which is now in a position to condition the decisions of the FBiH Government, which is already noticeable through increased financial injections into parts controlled by HDZ. The initiator of the initiative, Aljoša Čampara, does not want to reduce everything to national relations.

- I am a minister in the FBiH Government. I responsibly claim that all ministers are working under great pressure. We have no plan, no policy, no goal, and it is increasingly certain that we do not have the support of the majority in the FBiH Parliament, said Čampara.

In a statement to Patria, he explicitly rejected any possibility that the "Četvorka" (Four) coalition would form a government with HDZ, which has been reported in the media recently.

- Anyone who thinks politically correctly would not support such a story, especially not before the 2022 elections. I, for one, would never raise my hand for such a coalition. My initiative for the election of the President and Vice-President of FBiH is solely a desire to end the political chaos in which we have been living in recent years.

HDZ believes that pro-Bosnian political parties have no sincere intention of changing anything before 2022 in order to try to elect their own suitable Croats again in the elections. When asked if they are partly to blame for insisting on their proposal for the Election Law, Tadić told Patria:

"We have our proposal, what will be adopted is a matter of political compromise. We believe that a solution can be found that would reconcile the civic concept with legitimate representation, which HDZ insists on. We showed readiness for compromise in the case of the elections for the city of Mostar."

The fact that the election law needs to be changed is evidenced by the very brakes that are stifling democracy and the will of the citizens through the obstruction of the implementation of voters' will, considers Čampara and states:

"BiH needs a modern Election Law modeled after European countries, which will be based on civic representation while respecting the rights of the constituent peoples."