Negotiations on election law reforms in BiH fail to produce results

Negotiations on election law reforms in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina that started on Thursday, continued ended in Sarajevo on Sunday without achieving their goal. The negotiations were being mediated by the managing director for Europe and Central Asia at the European External Action Service, and the US Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The latest round of negotiations on changes to the election law in Bosnia and Herzegovina has ended without an agreement, in spite of mediation from EU representative Angelina Eichhorst and US Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michael Murphy. Croat leader and the president of the HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, blamed Bosnian Muslim leader and the president of the Party of Democratic Action, Bakir Izetbegović, for the failure.

Čović says that currently there are no conditions at all for the holding of the elections planned for October. However, Eichhorst said that the European Union would still insist that the elections be held in October. Election reform is one of fourteen preconditions set by Brussels for Bosnia and Herzegovina's further progress towards EU membership. For his part, Ambassador Murphy said that Washington will continue to stand firmly behind the Dayton Agreement. As it stands there do not seem to be any plans to hold another round of negotiations.

Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina are calling for election reforms that would allow them, as one of the three constituent peoples of that country, to elect their own representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina's political bodies. In February, talks between the two key sides, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims, which were also mediated by EU and US representatives, also fell short of the mark.

Source: HRT