Professional paper
REFORM OF ELECTORAL LEGISLATION – FIRST STEP TO ACCOMPLISHING CROATIAN NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF BiH
Božo Ljubić
; Hrvatski sabor, Odbor za Hrvate izvan Hrvatske
Josip Merdžo
; HNS, Glavni tajnik Hrvatskog narodnog sabora BiH
Abstract
Process of de-constituting Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina started with unconstitutionally
imposed changes of the Election Law following the proposal of the head of
OSCE’s mission in BiH Robert Berry in 2000, and continued in 2002 with imposed amendments
to the Constitution of the Federation of BiH by high representative Petritsch. These
amendments, resulted in further de-constitution of Croats and strengthening division of
Bosnia and Herzegovina in two entities – Serb dominated Republika Srpska and Bosniak
dominated Federation of BiH. The gravest consequences for Croatian constitutiveness and
equality originated from the changes of the Election Law regarding election of delegates
in the House of Peoples of the Federation. Election rules allowed cantons with Bosniak
majority to always elect majurity in all Clubs. These changes were a motif for me, as a
speaker of the House of Representatives of the PA BiH, to send a Request to review the
constitutionality of the BiH Election Law in the part that refers to the election of delegates
in the House of Peoples of the Federation. Constitutional Court declaring certain articles
of the Election Law unconstitutional. These decisions give confidence and show the way
how to continue with correcting disrupted solutions of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Accomplishment
of full constitutiveness and sovereignty of Croatian people and construction
of functional and self-sustaining Bosnia and Herzegovina can be attained only with fundamental
constitutional reform which will recognize the right of Croatian people to decide on
the internal organization of the state where it wants to live.
Keywords
Election Law; Petritch’s amendments on the Constitution of the Federation; House of Peoples of the Federation; constitutiveness of peoples; equality; Constitutional Court of BiH
Hrčak ID:
234792
URI
Publication date:
4.6.2018.
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