The leader of the Bosnian Croat HDZ BiH party, Dragan Covic, said on Thursday that the proposal to remove "ethnic prefixes" in elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be negotiated.

Covic was speaking two days after the US envoy on electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Matthew Palmer, proposed that “ethnic prefixes” be eliminated from the election process.

Covic was in the northern Bosnian town of Odzak on Thursday where he met with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic before an opening ceremony for a bridge at Svilaj.

Rational administrative organisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be discussed, while “meeting the need to ensure equality of the three constituent peoples” cannot, and that’s the minimum set by the Constitution and the Dayton/Paris Agreement, Covic said.

Palmer arrived in Sarajevo on Thursday and began a new round of talks in search of a solution to amending electoral legislation, the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed.

Speaking in an interview before the visit, Palmer said that the electoral law issue could be resolved by removing “ethnic prefixes” in the election of state leadership. This proposal reflects the need to ensure implementation of the rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which has found in five cases that some of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are discriminated against in the election process because only members of the constituent peoples – Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – can be elected to the state presidency and the upper house of the state parliament.

“Ethnic prefixes, or everything that concerns the constituent peoples under the Constitution and our laws, are used in about three percent of cases in the election process in all electoral units, while the classic civic model applies in 97 percent of cases,” Covic said and added: “We should find a balance between the civic and the ethnic.”

Plenkovic reiterated Croatia’s position that before the election in Bosnia and Herzegovina, due in October next year, “a consensus between political parties and institutions should be found with the support of the international community.”

That would avoid situations in which Bosniak voters elect Croatian representatives in government, “which hadn’t happened before 2006,” the Croatian prime minister noted. He added that such practice challenged the spirit and letter of the Dayton/Paris Agreement and was “bad for relations between the Croats and Bosniaks.”

“All we are doing is aimed at improving the trust and dialogue and reaching a common solution to ensure that all people feel good and are represented in accordance with the idea of one state, two entities and three constituent peoples. This is the Croatian position and we are discussing this matter with representatives of the European Union and the United States in this light,” Plenkovic said.

The bridge opening ceremony is also being attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is wrapping up her tour of Western Balkan countries.