ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - It is still possible to delay elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, due in October, if that would help resolve the problem of electoral law reform, the leader of the predominantly Bosniak Democratic Action Party (SDA), Bakir Izetbegović, said on Wednesday.
Izetbegović was speaking to the press in Sarajevo after talks between the Croat and Bosniak parties on the reform of electoral law, which were to have been held in Mostar on Tuesday, had been cancelled without explanation.
Izetbegović said he had not been invited to that meeting at all, but added that that did not affect his readiness for talks to continue in order to reach a solution.
"It is not unrealistic for an agreement to be reached," the SDA leader said, adding that an agreement should include a provision requiring the enforcement of all court judgments that had found discrimination in the election process. He said that "some progress" had been made in the consultations held so far.
Izetbegović said that the representatives of the international community were now waiting for the politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina to come closer in their views, after which they themselves might get involved in the finalisation of the agreement.
The SDA leader, however, rejected the possibility of changing the composition of the Central Election Commission (SIP), as demanded by the Croat HDZ BiH party and the SNSD of the Serb member of the state presidency, Milorad Dodik.
At a meeting of the upper house of the state parliament on Wednesday, the HDZ BiH and the SNSD adopted a conclusion saying that the present SIP had been appointed illegally and that the appointment procedure should be repeated. The two ruling Croat and Serb parties are dissatisfied because they consider the present Serb and Croat members of the SIP to be close to the opposition. The Bosniak MPs were against the proposal.
Izetbegović said that the HDZ and the SNSD could ask the court to decide on their proposal, otherwise the composition of the SDP would not be changed.
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