EU Delegation and US Embassy involved in resolving amendments to the Election Law

Representatives of SDP BiH, DF and SBB held a meeting today on the joint proposal of the Law on Electoral Units and the Number of Mandates in the Parliament of FBiH.

Damir Arnaut from SBB said that the proposed solutions are in line with some solutions that SBB had previously proposed, especially regarding the composition of the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament.

- We must be realistic and the solution will probably eventually be found through the efforts of the EU and the US Embassy in meetings with all parliamentary parties. The next meeting is next week. They are extremely committed to resolving this issue so that the elections can be implemented next year. We care that under no circumstances should the elections not be held, because in a technical mandate, SDA and HDZ BiH could then calculate. That is something that must not be allowed.

Irfan Čengić, Secretary General of SDP BiH, said that the scope of electoral units is not being changed, but rather the number of mandates in accordance with the current census.

- RS changed both the territory and the number of mandates, and with this proposal we are only changing the number of mandates, and in the House of Peoples we are putting into law what is written in the Constitution.

This proposal of the law is fully aligned with the Constitution of BiH, the Constitution of the Federation of BiH and the Election Law of BiH.

The law consists of two parts. The first part regulates electoral units and the number of mandates in electoral units for the House of Representatives of the PFBiH, in accordance with democratic principles of the value of the vote and equality of citizens in exercising the right to elect their representatives under equal conditions. This is a legal obligation of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH arising from the Election Law of BiH, which has not been respected for 15 years and results in discrimination against citizens of FBiH.

The second part of the law regulates the number and structure of delegates of the House of Peoples in accordance with the Constitution of FBiH and the principles contained in the ruling of the Constitutional Court of BiH upon the request of Božo Ljubić. The ruling established that it is necessary to change the imperative provision of the Election Law so that each constituent people gets one seat in the cantonal assemblies. The Constitution of FBiH clearly stipulates that each constituent people from each canton will receive at least one seat, if there is at least one such representative in the legislative body of that canton.