Osmanović: The Election Law does not have to be amended, the HDZ can appeal to Strasbourg

Adil Osmanović, the current vice president of the SDA, was a guest on the Federal Television's show ‘Plenum’. He said that the SDA believes that changes to the Election Law do not have to happen, that the SDA will not take any steps backwards that will lead to additional ethnic divisions. He also said that HDZ BiH can appeal to the European court for Human Rights with regard to the election of the Croat member of BiH presidency.

‘The difference of the SDA position in relation to the HDZ one is that the Election Law does not have to be changed before the upcoming General Elections. The elections can be held according to the current Election Law and the current Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we are ready to talk.

‘The parliamentary majority made up of the SDA, SNSD and HDZ with their coalition partners, needs to have more courage and determination. Of course, we have the courage and determination, but we will not support anything that will be to the detriment of the citizens and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Osmanovic stressed.

‘However, we will not take any step backwards that may lead to additional ethnic divisions within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and within the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are moving, as I said, towards European and civilization standards, and I’ve just asked the HDZ to determine whether they are ready to walk with us on that path, and that we separate ‘legal’ from ‘political’’, he underlined.

‘What the HDZ is asking for is of political nature, as none of the five judgments of the European Court of Human Rights has questioned the election of the Croat member of the BiH Presidency from the FBiH. If the HDZ thinks that their rights are endangered, why didn't they appeal to the Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights, to see how those judicial institutions would decide on this. Therefore, these are political goals and we can talk about them, but of course without any blackmail, blocking the state, which unfortunately the SNSD is doing. Unfortunately, the HDZ does not object to that… moreover, the HDZ is trying to suspend the implementation of the 2018 General Elections through the House of Peoples in the FBiH’, added Osmanović.