Media Statement, July 25, 2022: “Citizens’ Declaration of Opposition to High Representative Schmidt’s Discriminatory Plan for Election Reform”

Media Statement, July 25, 2022: “Citizens’ Declaration of Opposition to High Representative Schmidt’s Discriminatory Plan for Election Reform”

We, the undersigned BiH citizens and allies, proclaim our resolute opposition to the High Representative’s impending decisions regarding election reform and the functionality of the Federation of BiH.
We condemn the discriminatory plan that would exclude ethnic groups and others, who amount to less than 3% of the population in a given Canton, from participation in the electoral process (from standing for election), irrespective of the census level . Such a deliberate disenfranchisement and withdrawal of equality of citizens is a blatant violation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sejdi?-Finci and Zorni? cases. Such a decision by the High Representative would be a betrayal of democratic values and should not be supported by members of the PIC.
The High Representative’s impending decision continues the Dayton-imposed logic of constituent peoples, and further entrenches ethnic divisions rather than helping Bosnia move in the direction of a democracy of citizens with equal rights and dignity. It is simply incomprehensible that the High Representative would use his BONN Powers to further reinforce discrimination by supporting the gerrymandering intended by the Ljubi? case, rather than upholding the above-mentioned ECtHR rulings with respect to equal rights. Mr. Schmidt’s decision in favor of apartheid against the majority people undermines Bosnia’s case for EU membership.
In addition to the High Representative’s violation of democratic principles, we are concerned about the political consequences of this decision, which could well allow the avowedly separatist HDZ and SNSD parties to gain control of the House of Peoples. These are parties who by word and by deed have sought to undermine the sovereignty and integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the interest of neighboring Croatia and Serbia. Their leaders have sought to block the functioning of the State and have brazenly referred to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed State.
We are frankly appalled that the uncivil behavior of these parties and their leaders is now being rewarded by the High Representative. It is an unconscionable act of appeasement and a completion of genocidal goals from the 90s. The main source of public support of the High Representative’s decision has come from leaders in Croatia. Such meddling in Bosnia’s internal affairs, particularly by a government found guilty of being part of a Joint Criminal Enterprise seeking to establish Herceg-Bosna as part of a “Greater Croatia” is simply unacceptable.
According to international standards, the modification of electoral processes so close to the scheduled election is highly irregular and perhaps unprecedented. Obstructions used for the necessary personnel replacements in the process of election of judges of the BiH Constitutional Court and to highjack this institution. We have been dismayed by the High Representative’s complete lack of transparency with this impending decision, absence of any information about the impending decisions related to amendments to the FBiH Constitution, without any modifications either in the Republika Srpska entity or at the state level, as well as with the rushed timing of the high vacation season for his complex decision.
We are gravely concerned that these substantive injustices and procedural improprieties will lead Bosnia to conflict rather than toward functionality. For these and other reasons we categorically oppose the High Representative’s announced plan to impose election reform with BONN Powers that can mean a step backward for a democratic transformation and transition of BiH towards a civil society and a sovereign state.

We express our full support to the scheduled and future public protests as an expression of opposition to the impending anti-democratic decisions of the High Representative. We invite political entities and civil society organizations to actively engage and participate in organization, and ensuring if the continuity and dignity of the protests. It will be necessary to set a protest coordination body comprising all interested entities regardless of their mutual differences of views regarding other issues.
We implore the international community to reject the plan and to engage in genuine dialogue with BiH citizens about a democratic future. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,

The undersigned

For Krug 99 Adil Kulenovic, President
Azra Zornic, Appellant to the ECtHR
Jakob Finci, Appellant to the ECtHR
Prof. Hazim Basic, Ph.D, UNSA
Bojan Sosic, Psychologist
Tanya Domi, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, former Spokesperson of OSCE in BiH
David Pettigrew, Professor at Southern Connecticut State University and a member of the Working Group for BiH in the USA
Valery Perry, Democratization Policy Council
Emir Ramic, Ph.D., Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada
Bodo Weber, Political Analyst and Senior Associate of the Democratization Policy Council, Berlin
Kurt Bassuener, Co-founder and Senior Associate of the Democratization Policy Council, Berlin