Conclusions of the SDA Main Board: The public in BiH has the right to know what exactly happened in Laktaši

(Patria) - The SDA Main Board calls on the European Council to approve the opening of negotiations for Bosnia and Herzegovina in March this year. We are fully aware that the current government is not capable of fulfilling even the minimal conditions set before them. Despite such a government, and not because of them, Bosnia and Herzegovina should receive a positive stance from the European Council, taking into account the overall geopolitical situation.

We call on the ruling coalition to urgently fulfill the remaining conditions for opening negotiations with the European Union, which are reflected in the adoption of the 3+1 package.

We welcome the activities of the leadership and parliamentarians from SDA and other opposition parties thanks to whom the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering was adopted. SDA has also submitted the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in BiH Institutions to the procedure, which is also one of the conditions for opening negotiations, and we call on the ruling coalition to support this Proposal. We demand from the parties in power to finally agree on the Law on Courts, which will not reduce the jurisdiction of the BiH Court, and to send it to the procedure.

2. The SDA Main Board considers that the agreement of the presidents of SNSD, HDZ, and the Trojka parties, reached at Dodik's private estate, represents a new danger to the interests of the state and Bosniaks, especially in the entity of Rs.

If the provisions of that agreement were implemented, they would lead to irreparable damage, even greater than that caused by SDP a few years ago by voting for the Law on Residence.

Given that after criticism from the public and representatives of the international community, the representatives of Trojka unconvincingly deny the existence of the agreement, and other actors blackmail them with threats to release recordings from the meeting, the presidents of SDP, NiP, and Naša stranka are obliged to release the audio recording or transcript from the session themselves.

The public in Bosnia and Herzegovina has the right to know what exactly happened in Laktaši, and what Trojka agreed to. This particularly applies to the details of the agreement on the Constitutional Court of BiH and the Central Election Commission (CEC) tailored to Dodik and Čović, and the Election Law tailored to HDZ, which are dangerous for the state.

3. The SDA Main Board considers the amendments to the Election Law of BiH, which regulate the election of members of the Presidency of BiH in a different way, without prior amendment of the Constitution of BiH, to be unacceptable. Amendments to the Election Law of BiH without prior amendment of the Constitution of BiH are not the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of BiH. Bosnia and Herzegovina only has an obligation to ensure equal rights for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina when running for the Presidency of BiH, in accordance with the decisions of international and domestic courts.

Amending the Election Law of BiH, without prior amendment of the Constitution of BiH to remove ethnic designations, would mean another confirmation of the discrimination of citizens who do not declare themselves as members of one of the constituent peoples.

4. The SDA Main Board assesses that it is unacceptable to replace international judges in the Constitutional Court of BiH with domestic judges. The three international judges who cannot be citizens of neighboring countries are an important element of stability in the constitutional system of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a guarantee of consistent application of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which has supremacy over domestic law.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has an autonomous position and represents the supreme judicial authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its structure and functioning are determined by the Constitution, and these issues cannot be regulated by a special law, and certainly, an ethnic structure or ethnic veto on decisions cannot be introduced into the Constitutional Court.

5. The SDA Main Board considers the agreement of Trojka, SNSD, and HDZ from Bakinci on the dismissal of members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be an illegal attempt to bring this body under political control.

The dismissal of members of the Central Election Commission based on a political agreement of the ruling majority is illegal. The mandates of the members of the Central Election Commission can only cease based on clearly prescribed legal reasons, and not in any way based on the wishes of the ruling majority. The attack of the ruling majority on the Central Election Commission is actually an attempt to bring the election process under their control.

6. The SDA Main Board assesses that the relocation of the seat of the Appellate Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Sarajevo is unacceptable, and the reduction of the existing jurisdiction of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is particularly unacceptable, as well as any solution by which the Appellate Court would not have a role in harmonizing judicial practice throughout BiH.

7. The SDA Main Board calls on the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, to use his Bonn Powers and impose amendments to the Election Law related to the integrity of the election process.

The draft law submitted by SDA was adopted in the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, but the ruling coalition SNSD-HDZ-Trojka is preventing its adoption in the House of Peoples. From these actions, it is clearly evident that the ruling coalition does not want to prevent election theft and manipulation, and that elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be fair and honest.

Particularly hypocritical is the attitude of the Trojka parties, which have been pursuing populist policies on this issue for years, whose representatives in the House of Representatives supported SDA's proposal, only to then, after the agreement from Laktaši, align themselves with the positions of SNSD and HDZ and prevent the urgent adoption of this law.

8. The SDA Main Board calls on the ruling coalition in the Federation of BiH to put the Draft Law on the gas pipeline “South Interconnection Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia”, submitted by SDA, on the agenda without delay.

We remind that this law was previously adopted in the House of Representatives, but was withdrawn from the procedure by the decision of the current Government of the FBiH without a valid reason. The adoption of this legal solution would create prerequisites for the realization of this strategic energy project for the FBiH, which, in addition to improving the energy stability of the FBiH, also fulfills Bosnia and Herzegovina's obligation for diversification of energy sources and supply routes.

SDA strongly opposes HDZ's request to form a new company to manage the South Interconnection.

9. The SDA Main Board calls on the judiciary to finally begin applying in practice the provisions of the Criminal Code of BiH related to the denial of genocide and the glorification of war criminals.

The glorification of war criminals, in which the leaders of SNSD and HDZ are at the forefront, must not only be condemned by the public but also be criminally punished.

10. The SDA Main Board condemns the obvious abuses and instrumentalization of the judiciary for political purposes. Laws must be applied equally to every citizen, which has clearly not been the case in practice so far, especially in cases related to war crimes and corruption. There is a significant number of honorable professionals in the BiH judicial system, but unfortunately, also a large number of those who abuse their position in the judiciary.

Therefore, the SDA Main Board calls for an urgent and thorough reform of the judicial system, which would be aligned with European standards.

11. The SDA Main Board calls on judicial institutions to investigate and prosecute the serious and grave accusations related to the connections of the leadership of Narod i Pravda with a drug cartel, based on information obtained through the Sky application.

The claims of criminals that they “cannot cooperate with SDA and its leadership” and that they therefore need some new party, shed a completely new light on the overall relations on the BiH political scene and the real motives of certain political actors.

12. The SDA Main Board calls on the leaderships of BHRT, FTV, and Elektroprivreda BiH to sign an agreement that would continue the collection of subscription fees, in the way it has been done in previous years.

The functioning of public media services and the existence of employees of BHRT and FTV are jeopardized due to an obvious attempt to introduce political control, especially at FTV.

The blackmail by the president of NiP that the problems of financing public media services, FTV, and BHRT will be resolved when “cadres who work as the Trojka policies demand from them” are installed, is a scandalous attack on media freedom.

Public media services must be at the service of citizens, who finance them, and not at the service of the government, as Trojka would like in an autocratic manner.

13. The SDA Main Board warns of the wave of violence in the Federation and the increased number of murders, especially those where women are victims.

We demand intensified and more efficient activities from police structures, the judiciary, and other competent institutions in preventing, detecting, and most severely punishing serious criminal offenses. We also call for increased control within police structures and for amendments to laws that would tighten penalties for perpetrators.

14. The SDA Main Board considers that, taking into account the advantages of the constitutional position of Brčko District and the importance of its geostrategic position, it is necessary to proceed with the preparation and implementation of the project for the construction of a gas interconnection on the route Županja – Orašje – Brčko – Tuzla, which will enable the shortest connection for gas supply from the European market and the availability of this energy source to the economy and population of Posavina and Tuzla cantons, as well as Brčko District.

15. The SDA Main Board considers any changes to the previously established route of the Belgrade – Brčko – Sarajevo highway, which were agreed upon at a meeting held on September 6, 2022, in Brčko, to be unacceptable.