Konaković: Technical amendments to the Election Law are imperative, Košarac says the agreement from Laktaši should be implemented

(Patria) - A meeting of representatives of parliamentary political parties was held today in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH at the invitation of the Trojka parties (NIP, NS, SDP), but representatives of opposition parties from both FBiH and RS did not attend.

NIP leader Elmedin Konaković said that political representatives discussed various topics today.

"Today's meeting was supposed to define the existence of political will to solve this problem, but that majority would have to be articulated as a two-thirds majority. I criticize those who politicize this. This is a topic that must be resolved. We did not set final solutions today, but defined the political will to solve the problem."

Konaković said they did not expect leaders at today's meeting, but delegations.

"Those who should understand the importance of the current political moment for BiH were missing," Konaković said.

The President of NIP said that technical amendments to the Election Law are imperative.

"We should offer solutions ourselves. We are also interested in the Central Election Commission as it is. And some other solutions we are discussing, and discussions on one topic should not exclude others. I expect us to offer some solutions within the timeframe in which we expect the decision of the European Council in March," he said.

Speaking about the reaction of the US Embassy, which referred to the content of the document published after the talks in Bakinci, Konaković said that the rulings to eliminate discrimination are imperative.

Milan Petković (US) said that a two-thirds majority is needed to change the BiH Constitution.

"We clearly do not have that majority. We had discussions today. We did not reach an agreement. What I expect is for the coalition to schedule a meeting as soon as possible to continue the talks started in Laktaši."

Čedomir Stojanović from DEMOS said that today's meeting was called in a hurry and that there was no prepared material.

"Any encroachment on the Constitution is a significant and important topic and requires preparation. This meeting is being held after the meeting in Bakinci where some agreement was reached. Priority should be given to topics requested by the EU and that bring us closer to the EU, regarding courts, the Election Law. It is very important to reach an agreement on the topics that lead us to the EU," Stojanović said.

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Staša Košarac (SNSD) said that the most important topic is to implement the topics from Laktaši.

"An agreement was reached on January 18. A day or two later, Ambassador Murphy reacted abruptly to the agreement from Laktaši. On Wednesday, we will know if there is an agreement by rejecting the law that SDA put on the agenda. Some say Murphy is setting the agenda for Trojka. It seems to me that an attempt is being made to derogate from the agreement from Laktaši under the influence of some who want to model some solutions. We really want to talk about many issues. Constitutional amendments are a serious political issue, and this is an attempt to divert attention from the agreement from Laktaši. We appreciate that the Election Law is one of the more important issues and that there should be a credible majority for it," he said.

Košarac said that the Election Law was agreed upon in Laktaši.

"Some will say talks, some will say agreement. We are already entering the implementation of the agreed conclusions. We cannot take something from the Laktaši agreement and leave something out. It is symptomatic that someone is imposing other issues. When it comes to the implementation of the Sejdić-Finci rulings, RS will not interfere in the internal affairs of FBiH. Today we heard different views from the Bosniak structure. I appreciate that it is important to focus on the 14 priorities. There is a serious burden of relations between Trojka and SDA. There was no agreement at this meeting, we only talked," he said.

He emphasized that RS is not giving up on electoral sovereignty.

"We will not allow citizens from FBiH and others to choose the BiH Presidency member from RS for us. Our electoral sovereignty is clear and we will defend it," Košarac said.