Trojka and HDZ change Rules of Procedure to appoint Marin Vukoja as judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH

(Patria) - The caucuses of the SDP, NiP, PDA, Our Party, and the Croatian National Assembly submitted a Proposal for Amendments and Additions to the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives of the FBiH to the procedure on Friday. The essence of these amendments is to enable the ruling coalition, composed of Trojka and HNS, to appoint Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. You can read the complete Rules of Procedure by clicking here, and below we will focus on the key provisions related to the appointment of Marin Vukoja, writes Istraga.ba.

The key changes are in the provisions of Article 3 of the proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure. Here is how they read:

“If a position of chairperson, deputy chairperson, and member of a working body remains vacant in a working body due to the termination of a representative's mandate before the expiry of the term for which they were elected, it shall be filled in such a way that the position of chairperson, deputy chairperson, and member of the working body is awarded to the next candidate from the list from which the representative whose mandate has terminated was elected, after the representative's mandate has been verified, and all in accordance with the decision of the Central Election Commission of BiH on the termination and awarding of mandates.

(6) The proposal for a decision on amendments to the decision on the election of the chairperson, deputy chairperson, and members of the working bodies of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH may be submitted directly by authorized proposers in accordance with these Rules of Procedure, if the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the House does not establish the proposal of the said decision within 30 days from the date of verification of the mandate of the representative”, reads the proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure.

And here is what it is all about.

The Trojka and HNS parties have been trying since the beginning of this year to appoint HDZ's Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH. If Marin Vukoja were appointed, he would remain a constitutional judge until 2045. Judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH from the Federation are appointed by the House of Representatives of the FBiH. Trojka and HDZ have a majority there. However, their problem is the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the House of Representatives of the FBiH, which must discuss all appointments.

Trojka and HDZ BiH do not have the necessary majority in the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the House of Representatives to propose the appointment of Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court. According to the current Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, a majority of the total number of members of the Commission is required for making decisions within the original jurisdiction of the Commission. The Commission for Elections and Appointments has 11 members, which means a majority of six is required. However, the Commission has not been at full strength since the end of June. It is missing two members from HDZ BiH (Antonio Sesar and Feliks Vidović) who resigned from their representative positions, and thus from their membership in the Commission. Without these two members of the Commission, the Trojka and HDZ BiH parties do not have six votes in the Commission for Elections and Appointments, which means they do not have the necessary majority to make a decision to propose only Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

The Commission for Elections and Appointments of the House of Representatives of the FBiH is competent to review all materials from the Working Group for conducting the competition procedure for the election and appointment of a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH from the Federation. This Commission decides whether to submit a complete list of candidates for judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH to the House of Representatives of the FBiH, or only one name, which would then be voted on by the federal representatives. The President of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, insists that the Commission send only one name, namely the name of Marin Vukoja, a long-time secretary in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH who was on the HDZ BiH lists. This position of Dragan Čović is fully supported by Elmedin Konaković, the president of People and Justice BiH, who sees nothing wrong with appointing an HDZ cadre as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

The Commission for Elections and Appointments is a working body of the House of Representatives of the FBiH and has eleven members. When appointing the Commission, the ruling coalition (Trojka plus HDZ) decided that three seats would go to HDZ BiH, two to SDP, and one each to NiP, Our Party, NES, SBiH, SDA, and DF. Mladen Bošković from HDZ BiH was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission. However, at this moment, HDZ BiH is missing two members of the Commission. HDZ's Antonio Sesar resigned from his position as a representative in the House of Representatives of the FBiH at the end of June, which also terminated his mandate in the Commission for Elections and Appointments. Before Sesar, his party colleague Feliks Vidović also resigned from the House of Representatives of the FBiH, meaning HDZ BiH lost two members of the Commission.

To appoint new members of the Commission for Elections and Appointments, a decision must be made by the House of Representatives, which, by a separate decision, elects the chairperson, deputy chairperson, and members of the working body who are elected from among the representatives in the House of Representatives. However, before the House of Representatives of the FBiH decides on filling all commissions, the Commission for Elections and Appointments must discuss it.

At this moment, HDZ BiH and Trojka have only five members of the Commission: Mladen Bošković (HDZ), Damir Mašić (SDP), Aner Žuljević (SDP), Dragan Mioković (Our Party), and Rasim Smajlović (NiP). The opposition has four members of the Commission: Irfan Durić (NES), Eldar Čomor (SDA), Edina Gabela (SBiH), and Dajana Čolić (DF). If the four opposition members of the Commission do not attend the session, there will be no quorum for any discussion.

Therefore, the ruling coalition is blocked because they cannot fill the Commission for Elections and Appointments without the opposition, nor can they hold a Commission session without the opposition to propose the appointment of Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH. Precisely because of this, Trojka and HNS propose amendments to the Rules of Procedure, according to which the successors of Feliks Vidović and Antonio Sesar from the HDZ BiH Caucus would be automatically appointed as members of the Commission for Elections and Appointments. With such a filling, the Trojka and HNS parties would gain a majority in the Commission for Elections and Appointments, and Marin Vukoja could be proposed as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

However, this plan by Trojka and HDZ could also be blocked. Namely, the Legislative-Legal Commission of the House of Representatives of the FBiH must discuss the proposal for amendments to the Rules of Procedure.

“The Legislative-Legal Commission examines drafts and proposals of laws, other regulations, and general acts adopted by the House of Representatives regarding their compliance with the Constitution of the Federation and the legal system, as well as regarding legal processing, and submits a report with an opinion and proposals to the House of Representatives”, it is stated in the Rules of Procedure.

This Commission also has (had) 11 members. The Chairperson of the Commission is Belmin Zukan (SDP). Delfa Dejanović (HDZ, HSS SR, HSS, HSP) is the Deputy Chairperson, while the members are Haris Silajdžić (SBiH), Damir Arnaut (Our Party), Mirza Batalović (NES), Nezir Pivić (SDA), Adisa Kokić-Hinović (SDA), Dennis Gratz (DF Željko Komšić), and from the ranks of expert, scientific, cultural, and public workers Jasna Planinčić, Miroslav Marić, and Vernes Mulić.

Let us remind you, Damir Arnaut (Our Party) resigned, so there are currently 10 members in the Commission. The Trojka and HDZ parties, together with the experts, have five members. If the representatives of SDA, DF, NES, and SBiH do not attend the session, there will be no quorum for it to be held. Thus, the Legislative-Legal Commission will not be able to take a position on potential amendments to the Rules of Procedure.

In that case, Trojka and HDZ must violate all procedures and, in fact, impose new Rules of Procedure based on which they would impose Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH.