he Croat National Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HNS BiH) will launch the procedure to challenge Zeljko Komsic's election as the Croat member of the BiH Presidency as he was elected contrary to the Croats' will and with dominant Bosniak support, HNS BiH leader Dragan Čović said on Friday.

“One should contest the legality and legitimacy of the possibility to abuse the institute of the Croat member of the BiH Presidency,” Covic said after a meeting of Croat political parties making up the HNS BiH, announcing that talks on the formation of new authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 2 October elections had started.

Covic said that majority Croat communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina would declare Komsic persona non grata, ruling out the possibility of Komsic and his Democratic Front party participating in government formation.

He announced that parties gathered around the HNS BiH would be in power at all levels of government, from the state level to the entity and cantonal levels in the BiH Federation entity.

Speaking of conditions for post-election partnerships with Bosniak and Serb parties in government formation, Covic cited the implementation of reforms related to BiH's EU membership bid, including constitutional and electoral reform, a reform of the judiciary and the country's economic and social recovery.

Covic confirmed having already talked with the leaders of the biggest Bosniak and Serb parties, stressing that the new authorities had to be formed by the election winners of all three ethnic groups.

“Legitimate representatives of the three peoples must form the authorities. BiH will not function without that,” said Covic.

He did not dismiss the possibility of forming the government with the leading Bosniak SDA party or with the other pro-Bosniak bloc led by the SDP BiH party. He said his party's partners would be parties that would form the majority in the groups representing the constituent peoples in the state-level House of Peoples.