SDP will sue Bosnia's election watchdog

N1

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) Leader, Nermin Niksic, said the party will sue the Central Election Commission and several other people, before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina over alleged irregularities in the October general election.

The leader of the biggest opposition party in Bosnia said the election process in Bosnia was compromised and that they recorded numerous, alleged, irregularities which caused their candidate for the Bosniak Presidency member, Denis Becirovic, to lose the race.

“He (Becirovic) would disarm all those saying that one people chose another people’s Presidency member. With Denis Becirovic’s election, all the accusations against Zeljko Komsic (the newly elected Croat Presidency member) would fall because we would then have a situation where citizens would have elected two presidency members that don’t belong to any nationalist party in the country,” Niksic said.

Speaking about Zeljko Komsic’s election for the Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Niksic said he is a completely equal, legal and legitimate Presidency member.

Bosnia’s Presidency consists of three members, each coming from three constituent peoples in the country: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. After the recent general election in Bosnia, the new members are Zeljko Komsic from the Croat people, Sefik Dzaferovic from the Bosniak people and Milorad Dodik, from the Serb people.

However, Komsic's legitimacy is contested by all the major Croat parties in the country saying that his election was not legitimate because he was not elected by Croats, but by Bosniaks.

Regardless of these claims, Komsic’s election is, indeed, legal, Constitutional and legitimate, because the state Constitution stipulates that Presidency consists of “one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb member.” There is no mention of what ethnic group must vote for what candidate.

When it comes to the formation of the government after the October general election, Niksic told N1 that the only condition his party has for a coalition with any other party is the party program.

The SDP will talk to anyone on the government formation but our condition is the program. We need to agree on what the new governments at all levels will do in the new term.”

When asked about his possible meeting with the Leader of the strongest Bosniak party in the country, the Democratic Action Party’s (SDA) Bakir Izetbegovic, he said the meeting is almost certain.

“if you want to deal with politics, you must sit down and talk to people. The meeting between Bakir Izetbegovic and I is almost certain, just like the meeting with representatives of all other parties. However, no party deal will be made in secret,” the SDP Leader told N1.