Bosnian Croats Push Plan to Change Election Law

Bosnian Croat lawmakers say they expect the House of Peoples to discuss the changes they submitted to the election law on Thursday, under which only Bosnian Croats would elect their own representative to the country's three-member Presidency.

Under the current law, the Serb presidency member is elected by people living in the mainly Serb entity, Republika Srpska. However, all voters in the mainly Bosniak and Croat entity elect both the Bosniak and the Croat members of the Presidency, allowing the far more numerous Bosniaks to effectively elect both members.

Some 70 per cent of the population in the Federation entity are Bosniaks compared to only 22 per cent who are Croats.

Bosniak and Croat leaders have been trying to find a solution since 2011. However, Bosniaks have vetoed everything proposed so far as an attempt to further divide the country by introducing a third, Croat entity.

Barisa Colak, one of the lawmakers who submitted the proposal, said he expected the proposed changes to be adopted under urgent procedure.

But experts say the proposal will not be acceptable to parliament under any procedure and was being forced by the Croats.

"The use of urgent procedure sends the message 'Take it or leave it,'" political analyst Nedim Hogic told BIRN.

According to the proposal, the Federation entity would be divided into three electoral areas - A,B and C.

Area 'A' would have at least a two-thirds Bosniak majority, area 'B' a two-thirds Croat majority, while area 'C' would include all remaining, mixed electoral units.

"This is not a sincere attempt to find a solution to the problem," political analyst Adnan Huskic told BIRN.

He said the way in which the proposal was introduced was a "direct confrontation" and...