Bosnia’s Constitutional Court said on Thursday that it was not under its jurisdiction to decide whether the Central Election Commission (CIK) instruction on how mandates should be distributed following the October 2013 General election was right or wrong.
The appeal was submitted by 27 lawmakers who argued that the CIK decision to distribute the seats in the House of Peoples in one of the two semi-autonomous entities within the country, the Federation (FBiH), according to the 2013 census results is unconstitutional.
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The December 18 decision also said that at least one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb need to enter the House from each of the ten Cantons within FBiH.
The decision outraged a part of the country’s political elite which claims that the FBiH Constitution clearly states that the 1991 census must be applied because the 2013 one is a result of wartime ethnic cleansing which would reflect itself in the power distribution.
“We said that this is not within our jurisdiction, which means that the CIK has done its job, and who will be contesting it is not up to us,” the President of the Constitutional Court, Zlatko Knezevic, told N1.
He stressed that as a citizen he can only say that the cantons should name their representatives to the region’s upper house so that the government can be finally formed.
