Bosnian Croat leaders on Tuesday submitted a proposal to the US and EU administrations for electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, incorporating the relevant rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the country's Constitutional Court.

Ilija Cvitanovic of the Croat HDZ 1990 party said that the parties within the Croatian National Council (HNS) supported the proposed electoral and constitutional amendments forwarded to the foreign mediators.

The proposal will be also forwarded to the Bosniak and Serb representatives. Bosniak parties believe that negotiations on the electoral reform should not resume in light of the Bosnian Serb boycott of the state institutions.

The proposed amendments concern changes to the model of the election of the three-member presidency, the upper house of the state parliament, and the Croat caucus in the upper house of parliament of the Croat-Bosniak Federation entity.

“The legitimate political representation and equal status of the Croats as a constituent people is the minimum below which we will not and cannot go. That is our common position,” Cvitanovic said without going into detail.

He added that the US and EU mediators had no objections to the proposal concerning the legal aspects.

Asked by the press what would happen if the negotiations on the election reform fell through, Cvitanovic said that the HNS would address this possibility at its extraordinary meeting on 19 February.