SARAJEVO/ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - The Croatian Embassy's charge d'affaires in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dunja Jevak, on Wednesday handed a Croatian government non-paper to officials of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo,
asking for an explanation of changed electoral rules for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
SARAJEVO/ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - The Croatian Embassy's charge
d'affaires in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dunja Jevak, on Wednesday handed
a Croatian government non-paper to officials of the Office of the
High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, asking for an explanation of
changed electoral rules for Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L#
Jevak told Hina Wednesday she had held talks with the High
Representative for legal issues, John Campbell.
"The document I handed in asks for an explanation of changes to
electoral rules in Bosnia-Herzegovina, relating to the election of
representatives into the House of Peoples of the Bosnian
Federation," Jevak said.
Wolfgang Petritsch's deputy said the OHR would discuss the request
and try to reply to it as soon as possible.
The document, called a non-paper in diplomatic circles, was also
handed to officials of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the non-
paper "expresses the government's regret that participants of the
parliamentary life in the Bosnian Federation could not arrive at a
joint acceptable model of the electoral law".
The document also relays concern that the application of the
electoral law and the new regulations drawn up by the OSCE's
Provisional Electoral Commission "could bring into question the
issues of equality, sovereignty and constitutive quality of the
Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina," the Ministry said.
The provisional Electoral Commission (PEC) in the country reached a
decision on October 11, in line with which members of the federal
Parliament's House of People's would be elected in the future by all
members of cantonal assemblies.
Until this decision, representatives for all three constitutive
peoples in Bosnia were elected exclusively by members of the same
people, while the new decision stipulates the voters of all three
peoples would vote for all the representatives.
The number of MPs at the House of peoples has been increased -- 30
MPs of both Croat and Bosniak nationality, and 20 representatives
of other peoples.
This indirectly influences the new structure of the Bosnia-
Herzegovina's Parliament House of Peoples as they are elected by
MPs of the Bosnian Federation House of Peoples.
President of the New Croat Initiative (NHI) party, Kresimir Zubak,
told Hina if the Croatian government's "document in on the trail of
what we have asked for -- the establishment of a house of peoples in
the Republika Srpska parliament as well -- we have no objections".
Commenting on the electoral changes, Zubak said "if such a thing was
done in the Bosnian Federation, there is no reason for the same
thing not to be done in Republika Srpska to better protect the
rights of Croats in this entity".
Despite this comment, the new regulations by the PEC to not bring
into question the constitutional role of the House of Peoples
because national quota will be maintained, decisions made by
consensus, and party benches will preserve their right of veto,
protecting vital national interests.
"The new organisation of the House will be more democratic, and the
only thing that will change is that the HDZ BiH (Croatian Democratic
Union party of Bosnia-Herzegovina) will no longer have monopoly on
decisions about the interests of the Croat people, Zubak stressed,
adding his party would not respond to an invitation to attend a so-
called all-Croat assembly taking place in Novi Travnik on October
28.
HDZ BiH officials have been the loudest in protesting against
changes to the electoral regulations, claiming this jeopardised
the equality of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(hina) lml