Talks on the electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina are expected to resume after the New Year's holiday, the Bosnian Croat HDZ BiH party said on Monday, adding that it will not be possible to hold elections without the reform that would include the constituent peoples and ensure legitimate representation.

The party said after a meeting of its leadership that any attempts at abolishing the status of the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats as constituent peoples, which the Constitutional Court has described as the overarching principle, and undermining legitimate political representation would violate the constitutional order and the Dayton agreement.

The HDZ BiH wants these principles to be ensured through the reform of electoral legislation to eliminate any discrimination against ethnic minorities and outvoting of the constituent peoples, which particularly affects the Croats whose representatives have been chosen several times by Bosniak parties and voters.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, HDZ BiH vice-president Marinko Cavara said that talks on the electoral reform were expected to resume after the New Year’s holiday through mediation of the United States and the European Union.

Talks were postponed last week because the US State Department special envoy, Matthew Palmer, and the managing director for Europe and Central Asia at the European External Action Service, Angelina Eichhorst, assessed that no progress would be made because the Croats and Bosniaks were too far apart in their views.

Cavara accused the Bosniak majority parties SDA and SDP BiH of boycotting the electoral reform for a while, as shown by their announcement that they were pulling out of the talks. The HDZ BiH on Monday called on other parties to stop ongoing crises in the country, saying that with their moves they were putting the country’s future at risk.