Finci: National parties in BiH are depriving of rights their own people

The Croatian Democratic Union of BiH (HDZ BiH) insists on changes to the Election law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a consequence, voters from one BH constituent group would not be able to vote for the politicians from another constituent group.

'... People from one constituent group should not elect representatives for another constituent group. We do not want to change anything else, but merely avoid the procedure by which the Bosniaks elect representatives for Croats and vice versa', stated Dragan Covic, the president of HDZ BiH in one of his press appearances earlier in 2017.

The politics of HDZ BiH president is backed by the Croatian government in Zagreb.

Minimum conditions of an agreement between three parties about changes to the Election law in BiH are the ones which would enable Croats to elect their legitimate representatives in the government, which has not been the case so far, the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said during his last year's visit with Mostar.

Analysts think that HDZ BiH proposal is unacceptable if BiH wants to become a member of the EU. Modern Europe does not recognize ethnic boundaries. Therefore, the HDZ's proposal is also discriminatory toward Bosnian Croats who live in the central and eastern Bosnia, as it, for some cantons, takes away the opportunity for the Croats living there to have their representatives in the House of Peoples FBiH.

Friar Mile Babic, the professor at Franciscan Theology in Sarajevo, earlier stated that the society first has to achieve democracy before it begins searching for 'its national, lingual or some other identity'.

Otherwise, we have a problem, we have conflicts, Babic said. 'Therefore, human rights are of primary importance', he underlined.

The analysts have also noticed that, HDZ does not want other constituent groups to elect representatives for Croats, however, it seems to escape everyone's attention that for national minorities in BiH, such as Roma or the 'Others', others elect representatives in the government.

Dr Zlatko Hadzidedic, the expert for international relations, often points out that, according to the Constitution BiH, the 'Others' are placed in the same category as Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, however, they do not have the same number of seats in the House of Peoples as the other three constituents. The 'Others' also cannot be elected in the Presidency BiH.

The President of Jewish Community BiH, Jakob Finci thinks that the national parties in BiH, by imposing the rule by which other constituent groups cannot elect leaders for their own people, have brought their own people into an absurd situation as in some parts of BiH they cannot vote for their own representatives.

We find ourselves in a bizarre situation: the Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska will have lost their right to vote because they will not be able to vote for a candidate for BiH Presidency other than for a Serb. At the same time, the Serbs in Federation BiH can vote (for BiH Presidency candidate-member) only from the Bosniak and Croat constituencies, Finci told Patria, adding that such situation must have been agreed between the three leading national parties.

'We are now in a quite absurd situation which does not lead anywhere, except that it proves we can't continue like this', concludes Finci.