BOSNIA STILL WITHOUT PERMANENT ELECTORAL LAW

SARAJEVO, June 22 (Hina) - The House of Nations of Bosnia- Herzegovina on Friday made unsuccessful attempts to discuss a draft of a permanent electoral law, and thus this legislative project, forwarded into a parliamentary procedure by the Bosnian Council of Ministers, was finally rejected. Three days ago the session of the upper house was set for Friday, as the authorities believed that representatives would have an opportunity to confirm the bill in a form in which it would be passed by the House of Representatives. The lower house, however, did not accept the text of the bill on Thursday night following a two-day heated debate, marked by many breaks, quarrels and accusations. The text, which actually contains electoral rules applied until the 2000 elections, was supported by representatives of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) and a few parties from Bosnian Serb ranks in the lower house. MPs from parties which make up the ruling coalition "the Alliance for Change" and of the (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) were either against the bill or abstained form the vote. They explained their opposition with the fear that such text of this law would legalise results of the ethnic cleansing and allow people currently occupying the property of other persons (i.e.refugees) illegally, to vote at their provisional places of residence. At the very beginning of Friday's session, representatives to the upper house were practically divided into two blocks. The bench of Serb deputies insisted that they should vote on the bill regardless of the outcome of the lower house's voting, while Croats and Bosniaks (Muslims) were against this. At the proposal of the Croat MPs' bench, it was agreed that the discussion on this matter should be discontinued and that a new session be convened with the fulfilment of conditions for such a move. "We believe that in coming ten days it will be possible for us to reach a compromise about a new draft of the permanet electoral law," said Ivo Divkovic, the head of the Croat bench. The adoption of a permanent electoral law by 22 June was a precondition which Bosnia's authorities should have met so that the Council of Europe may begin a discussion on admitting Bosnia into its membership. Non-adoption of the law may prolong the admission of Bosnia into the Council of Europe for a year and half at least. Sarajevo forwarded its application for the Council's membership four years ago. The international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, should have discussed this issue with Council of Europe officials on Friday in Strasbourg. After the parliament's failure to pass the bill, Petritsch noted with regret that this was yet another proof of inability of political forces in Bosnia to reach compromise on any key issue for the country. Yesterday's outcome of the vote presents a step backward on the path of Bosnia's democratic progress, the Austrian diplomat said. Bosnian Foreign Minister and a leader of the Alliance, Zlatko Lagumdzija, admitted that the non-adoption of the bill was a step backward for Bosnia but he asserted this was something necessary. Some solutions in the electoral law have not been in compliance with the European convention on human rights and freedoms, Lagumdzija added. The foreign minister said that a new draft of the bill would respect the ruling of the country's Constitutional Court that all the three peoples - Croats, Muslims and Serbs - are constituent on the entire territory of Bosnia. The non-adoption of the permanent election law was used by the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) for launching a media campaign in which they claim that this situation reflects the inability and incompetence of the incumbent ruling coalition to govern the country. (hina) ms