European Court Rules Against Bosnia in Mostar Election Case

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg said on Tuesday that it has ruled that Bosnia and Herzegovina must amend the country's electoral law to allow local elections to be held in Mostar after an 11-year gap.

Irma Baralija, the president of the Mostar branch of political party Nasa Stranka, sued the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina because it was impossible for her, a politician living in Mostar, to run or vote in local elections in the city because they are not being held as a result of a legal problem.

The Strasbourg human rights court ruled in her favour, finding that that legal void had been created by the failure of the Bosnian authorities to enforce a 2010 Constitutional Court ruling on arrangements for voting in local elections in Mostar.

The failure meant that the last local elections in Mostar were held in 2008 and the city has been governed since 2012 by a mayor who does not have the required democratic legitimacy, the Strasbourg court said.

"The court could not, therefore, accept the [Bosnian] government's justification for the prolonged delay in enforcing the [2010 Constitutional Court] ruling, namely the difficulties in establishing a long-term and effective power-sharing mechanism for the city council so as to maintain peace and to facilitate dialogue between the different ethnic groups in Mostar," it said in a statement.

In the ruling, the court ordered Bosnia and Herzegovina to pay the applicant, Baralija, 5,000 euros for costs and expenses.

It said that Bosnia and Herzegovina must amend the Election Act 2001 "at the latest within six months of this judgment becoming final, in order to enable the holding of local elections in Mostar".

In November 2010, the Bosnian Constitutional Court declared...