Speaking to reporters in Sarajevo after the commission's meeting, commission chairman Branko Petric said that the election would be held in accordance with the rules that had been in force up to now, after Parliament rejected constitutional changes that would have enabled amending the electoral legislation.
The present electoral rules contain discriminatory provisions under which, for instance, a Croat or a Bosniak living in the country's Serb entity known as Republika Srpska cannot become a member of the state Presidency. The same restrictions also apply to Serbs living in the Bosniak-Croat entity called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
A set of constitutional amendments that provided for the annulment of such restrictions was rejected last week by the House of Representatives of the Bosnian Parliament.
The British Ambassador to Sarajevo, Matthew Rycroft, told reporters on Thursday that the Bosnian electoral legislation was evidently in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms, and that it was possible to initiate proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights to seek annulment of elections held under the existing rules.
On the first Sunday in October, 2,644,000 registered voters will be choosing a three-member Presidency, a new House of Representatives of the national Parliament and of the Federation's Parliament, a President and a Vice-President of Republika Srpska, members of the Republika Srpska National Assembly, members of the ten cantonal assemblies of the Federation, and new municipal councils and heads of municipalities.
The election commission estimated the cost of the polls at between four million and five million euros.