Bosnia could gain the EU candidate status by end of this or at the beginning of the next year if election results are implemented, said a member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Dragan Covic in Zagreb on Thursday.

Covic said, during a lecture before the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences on the status of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that he was convinced the October election in Bosnia would pass in a fair atmosphere and would be marked by a rhetoric usually used in election campaigns.

According to him, the crucial problem of elections in Bosnia is the implementation of their results.

“It is our goal to ensure that legitimate representatives of Croat people, pursuant to the Constitution and decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, perform the duties through representation in the house of peoples,” said Covic, adding that the same applies for other two constituent peoples – Bosniaks and Serbs.

The Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 that certain provisions of the Election Law were inconsistent with the Constitution. Since then the authorities have failed to act in the legally allowed timeframe resulting in a further court ruling to delete two sections of the Election Law that treat the matter of representation in the House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity.

Although the political talks on the electoral reform yielded no result, the Central Election Commission scheduled the election for October 7.

According to Covic, it would be “a harsh violation of democratic relations” if the Election Law was amended now that the election was called.

“But we must intensively talk to avoid the crisis in the implementation of the election results, which is being announced,” he concluded.