SARAJEVO – The presidents of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović, met yesterday in the building of the EU Delegation in BiH with representatives of the international community. The main topic of the meeting was the holding of local elections in Mostar, which have not been held in this city since 2008, Radio Free Europe reports.
None of the participants wanted to make statements after the meeting.
Only the High Representative in BiH, Valentin Inzko, who attended the meeting, commented that “90 per cent of things have been agreed”.
The Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the President of the HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, said on June 5 that they were “on the right track” to reaching an agreement on new election rules for Mostar.
Irma Baralija, vice president of political party called Our Party, who filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights in 2018 for not holding local elections in Mostar, said that Čović and Izetbegović should be held accountable for Mostar, and not negotiate on it.
“According to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, we still have a month to find a solution for Mostar in the BiH Parliament. If that does not happen, the BiH Constitutional Court will resolve the matter. Due to that fact, yesterday’s marathon meeting of the representatives of the International Community with two ethnic leaders is really surreal,” Baralija said.
She stressed that these negotiations give them legitimacy and elevate them above the institutions of this country, thereby discrediting one of its most important institutions – the European Court of Human Rights.
“The elections in Mostar are not the result of the good will and agreement of individuals, but the indisputable right of the citizens of Mostar that must be guaranteed to them,” she said.
The meeting in Sarajevo on June 10 was hosted by the Head of the European Union Delegation to BiH Johann Sattler, and in addition to representatives of two political parties from BiH (SDA and HDZ BiH), the meeting was attended by US Ambassador to BiH Eric Nelson and British Ambassador to BiH Matthew Field.