Election-related law adopted in absence of Croats

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The House of Representatives of the Federation entity (FBiH) unanimously adopted on Wednesday the Proposal of Law on Constituencies and the Number of Mandates in the FBiH Parliament. The law was passed in absence of Croat representatives, who previously announced they would not attend the session.

65 representatives in the House of Representatives of the FBiH, semi-autonomous entity shared by Bosniaks and Croats, adopted the law proposal after the Croat representatives expressed discontentment with the content of the proposal and the way in which the session discussing the document has been scheduled.

The law proponents, on the other hand, said they believed the law, if adopted in the House of Peoples too, will solve the election law impasse and enable implementation of the October election results.

Speaking for N1, FBiH President and HDZ senior official Marinko Cavara said the law proposal contained elements of denial of the Constitutional Court’s decision and Bosnia’s state institutions. He is convinced the House of Peoples will not adopt this text of the law.

Four parties – the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Alliance for Better Future (SBB), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Democratic Front (DF), with support of the Our Party, agreed earlier on a law proposal that defines the geographical constituencies and the number of mandates in the Parliament of the FBiH, Bosnia's entity shared by Bosniaks and Croats, hoping they would solve current political crisis that hinders progress of the country.

Bosnia's state-level Election Law has been a burning issue since two years ago when the Constitutional Court ruled that some of its provisions were violating the state Constitution. One of the disputable provisions dictated that the Federation's cantons delegate at least one representative from each of the country's three main ethnic groups to the Federation's House of Peoples.