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SARAJEVO, May 22 (FENA) - The first meeting of representatives of political parties in BiH with members of the Venice Commission was held today in Sarajevo, which focused mainly on the amendments to the electoral legislation, with expressed attitudes and opinions of the representatives of political parties in BiH, which remained largely unchanged, resulting in no concrete solutions.
Vice President of SDA Šefik Džaferović addressed the press after the meeting and said that the Venice Commission will only give advice and opinions on what would be the best solutions in terms of European standards and best practices.
“They will not impose any solutions or exhort pressure. Their role is to help us in BiH to come up with an internal solution that will be in line with European standards,” he added.
A member of the Presidency of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP), Zoran Mikulić, said that the members of the Venice Commission examined the opinions and explanations of the proposals made by domestic political representatives on the ways to resolve the "electoral crisis", but that they did not formulate any opinions.
“I hope that the Venice Commission, following the talks in the next two days, would offer its position on the existing proposals in the legislative procedure,” he said, referring mainly to the proposal by the Democratic Front (DF) and the SDP who have been forwarded to the FBiH Parliament, but have not yet been put into parliamentary procedure because of the obstructions by SDA and HDZ."
Mikulić believes that the aforementioned proposal is the best one and that it is fully in line with the BiH Constitution, the Constitution of FBiH, the BiH Election Law and the positions expressed in the decision on the appeal in the Ljubić case, as well as with the position of the Venice Commission in the same context.
He stressed that during today's meeting, the political parties mostly remained firm in their earlier positions, while the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) has had “the most rigid position".
“HDZ is trying to use the House of Peoples to block all future processes and ensure their everlasting participation in power, while firstly discriminating against the deputies from their own ranks, and then against deputies from other nations, in order to prevent anyone else from ever taking part in the constitution of power,” said a member of the SDP Presidency.
The Office of the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo yesterday announced that, as agreed by political parties in FBiH, in the context of the EU and US efforts to facilitate the process of electoral reform and following a formal request sent from the EU, the Venice Commission will attend a series of meetings with the relevant participants in the election process.
After today’s meeting, two more meetings are scheduled for tomorrow and on Thursday.
(FENA) S. R.
