SARAJEVO, Oct 23 (Hina) - The Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH) seems to be giving up plans to preserve the coalition which this party has to date formed with Social Democrats (SDP), and has announced that it will withdraw into the
Opposition in the case of a failure of the project of the set-up of a sort of the government of the national unity in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
SARAJEVO, Oct 23 (Hina) - The Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH)
seems to be giving up plans to preserve the coalition which this
party has to date formed with Social Democrats (SDP), and has
announced that it will withdraw into the Opposition in the case of a
failure of the project of the set-up of a sort of the government of
the national unity in Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L#
The SBiH President, Safet Halilovic, said on Wednesday that the
Alliance for Changes which had been in power for two years, until
the Oct. 5 election, could no longer rule the country, given that
the new authorities, composed on the same principle but including
some new parties, would depend on votes of deputies of the Bosnian
Party (BOSS) and the Serb Radical Party (SRS), whose dedication to
the reforms was questionable.
Halilovic added that they had talked about the issue with
international diplomats, and told them that such a thing could not
function.
The SBiH, actually led by Haris Silajdzic, will tip the scales
either against or in favour of the three national parties which
might form a new ruling coalition. The (Muslim) Party of Democratic
Action (SDA), the Croatian Democratic Union in Bosnia (HDZ BiH) and
the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) have together 20 seats in the 42-
seat parliament on the state level, which is not enough for a
majority needed for forming new executive authorities.
The SDA has already called SBiH to join this coalition of national
parties, and SDA President, Sulejman Tihic, openly offered the
office of premier to Silajdzic in return.
On Tuesday evening, the SBiH Presidency, however, concluded that
the open alliance with the national parties would also bring more
damage than benefit for this party.
Therefore, this party proposed a formula of "the representative
government", in which political parties would take part in
accordance to the results they achieved at the recent general
polls.
The leadership of Social Democrats already turned down such a
proposal. A member of the SDP leadership, Karlo Filipovic, on
Wednesday reiterated that any kind of alliance with the national
parties was out of question, and Social Democrats would go in the
Opposition rather than forming a coalition with the national
parties.
The United States' Ambassador to Sarajevo, Clifford Bond, stated
that neither his country nor the European Union would treat the
authorities, which would consist of national parties, as their
partner.
A very complicated division of forces in the state parliament as
well as in the parliaments of the two entities opens up a
possibility of considering a new extraordinary election as the only
exit from the current situation.
(hina) ms