Azem KurticSarajevoBIRNDecember 2, 202217:27Court rejects appeal to suspend High Representative’s imposed changes to the election law, saying that the case had not been well argued, and suspension could undermine the rule of law.
The High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, speaks during the inaugural press conference, in Sarajevo, 4 August 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIRP
Bosnia’s Constitutional Court has rejected the appeal of the Croat member of the state presidency, Zeljko Komsic, to temporarily suspend recently imposed changes to the election law.
In its explanation of a decision on Friday, the court said that “the applicants did not clearly state, beyond the abstract level, what types of irreparable damage could occur if the challenged acts remained in force until the dispute was resolved.”
It added that “accepting the applicants’ request for a provisional measure could have negative consequences for the rule of law”.
Beside Komsic, former Bosniak member of the presidency Sefik Dzaferovic made a separate appeal. They were discussed as one case in front of the court.
The changes at stake were made by the High Representative to Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, on the election night on October 2, just minutes after the polling stations closed.
Many disputed the use of the so-called “Bonn-Powers” by the German diplomat, saying that the changes “cement apartheid” in Bosnia.
Several protests were held in front of the Office of the High Representative in the capital Sarajevo, where they complained that the changes were being made to keep the main Croat parry, the HDZ, in power.
At the end of July more than 7,000 people gathered in Sarajevo at a protest organised by Bosniak parties.
Facing pressure, Schmidt abandoned some of the changes, such as the 3 per cent quota. This would mean that if the numbers of members of Bosnia’s constituent nations – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs – in any Federation entity canton were less than 3 per cent, they will no longer have representatives in the House of Peoples of the Federation parliament.
In the second intervention, announced by the international envoy in the case Bosnian politicians fail to come up with their own solution for the election law changes, Schmidt sought to ensure the functionality of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities in the country.
To do so, he changed the election law by raising the number of representatives in the Federation’s House of Peoples and the way they are chosen.
The changes also include a deadline for the formation of the government after an election, and the way of selecting judges for the entity’s Constitutional Court, which has been nonfunctional since 2019.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
