All Pitfalls and Shortcomings in the Proposal to Dissolve the BiH House of Peoples

(Patria) - In recent days, there has been a debate regarding the proposal by Our Party to dissolve the House of Peoples of the BiH PA, to which Željko Komšić, the Chairman of the Presidency, reacted, stating among other things that despite the good intentions of Our Party, this option is not realistic for a number of reasons.

According to the Rules of Procedure, the Presidency can dissolve the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including in cases of changes in the parliamentary majority in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska; in the Bosniak Caucus of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; in the Croat Caucus of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The proposal to dissolve the BiH House of Peoples has another shortcoming!

What if Milorad Dodik does not fill the Serb Caucus through the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, and according to the BiH Constitution, a quorum consists of 3 Bosniaks, 3 Croats, and 3 Serbs?

And what then, especially when the budget needs to be passed to enable elections?

There remains a concern that if Čović does not elect all 5 members through the House of Peoples of the FBiH, but the opposition only 2, there will still be no quorum for decision-making.

It seems that the old composition of the caucuses would remain until a new one is elected, so Our Party is actually only targeting the Bosniak Caucus, disregarding the consequences.

The House of Peoples of BiH is the upper house of the legislative body, which, when dissolved, must be entirely re-formed, with all 15 delegates. Therefore, the talk of filling only one of the caucuses, say the Bosniak Caucus, with 5 members, is absolutely not viable.

It must be filled completely, and until that happens, for the continuity of government, the old composition remains with full decision-making capacity, as decided by the Constitutional Court of BiH at the request of Sulejman Tihić.

Therefore, dissolving the BiH House of Peoples at such a critical moment, with an uncertain outcome of forming a new one, is complete adventurism, without any guarantee of a concrete result.

Zlatan Begić, a Member of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, is of the opinion that dissolving the House of Peoples at this moment would only mean giving an alibi, or legalizing the blockade of the State Parliament's work that Dodik is already carrying out!

"To inform the uninformed, his delegates (from RS) are already NOT in the state House of Peoples, they refuse to come. So, dissolving the House of Peoples would be welcome to them because they would no longer have any obligation (or responsibility!) to come, and no one would force Dodik and Čović to elect new ones - because, as is known, both of them control this process almost entirely - especially Dodik in Republika Srpska - which is clear and known to everyone. Just as they have blocked everything in the country, they would also block the election of a new convocation of the House of Peoples in the event of the dissolution of the old one. This would mean that there would be no body (House of Peoples - in this case) that, together with the House of Representatives of the PS BiH, should pass the budget for next year's elections, that there would be no elections, that there would be no newly elected institutions of the BiH state because there were no elections in which they would be elected, that there would be no servicing of everything else related to the functioning of the BiH state - because, among other things, this would provide an alibi for total obstruction of everything in other institutions under the internal and international circumstances and relations as they are currently - and which no responsible person can ignore, that there would be no state, and Dodik would no longer be responsible for it - but rather those who dissolved the House of Peoples," said Begić.

The House of Peoples should never have been composed as it is, and those who influenced it bear responsibility for that, he added.

"Apart from Mr. Komšić, neither of the other two members of the Presidency would have voted for the dissolution of the House of Peoples in the period when it might have been rational - and that was the period before the withdrawal from state BiH institutions by members from the entity of RS. I know this because we in DF preliminarily considered this option as an idea and a potential possibility (i.e., only as a possibility!) at a time when it might have been expedient and rational to do so, but even if we had proceeded with it, we certainly would not have had the support of the other member of the BiH Presidency.

However, what we in DF also took very seriously at that time was the danger that decision-makers must consider if they are even remotely responsible - and that is the fact that without Dodik and his party, new delegates to the House of Peoples could not be elected in the event of the dissolution of the old delegates (simply put, someone has to put an item on the agenda, then vote on that item, then carry out the delegation procedure, etc., etc., etc.), meaning they could completely block it by action or inaction in a thousand ways - just as they have blocked the entire country (this should probably be obvious and clear to everyone) and by dissolving the House of Peoples, they would be giving Dodik and Čović a huge advantage.

That is why it was not pursued, in the period before the withdrawal from state BiH institutions by members from the entity of RS, due to the danger of an objectively possible blockade of the election of new delegates, and considering that this is precisely what the Dodik-Čović axis wants. And precisely for this reason, it cannot be pursued today either, regardless of good intentions. Unless, of course, the current proposers of such sensational solutions would then "drag" them by their vests or ears, or beat them with handbags! I cannot believe that even in such difficult times, individuals are engaging in irresponsible populism, clamor, and attempts to improve their personal and party ratings!? If you don't want to help, at least don't hinder and confuse the already confused and frightened citizens!" Begić notes.
 

(A.Č.Z.)