The Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) is inclined to accept election law changes that would be close to demands by the Croat HDZ BiH party but is reluctant to do so without the consent of Zeljko Komsić, who has refused it - this is "the latest information after the arrival of US special envoy Matthew Palmer in Sarajevo," Croatian state agency Hina said on Friday.

SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic confirmed to the local media on Friday that he met in Sarajevo with Palmer, who was discussing changes to the country’s election law also with the leaders of other parties.

Izetbegovic said that Palmer did not come with any new proposal and that he expected the problem to be resolved in direct dialogue between the SDA and the HDZ BiH, but Izetbegovic does not believe this is possible as the solutions must be acceptable also to the current BiH Presidency Chairman Komsic as well as to the leaders of other, civic and left-wing parties in the BiH Federation entity.

Izetbegovic said that he would try to persuade Komsic to accept a model proposed seven years ago by then EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. Under that model, the BiH Federation, the country’s Croat-Bosniak entity, would remain a single constituency, however, the two members of the BiH Presidency elected in that entity would be elected in line with a clause under which the mandates are won by the candidate who wins the largest total number of votes and the candidate who wins the most votes in the cantons in which the first candidate is not first-ranked. It is assumed that in reality this would mean that cantons with a Croat, that is, Bosniak majority decide who will be the Croat and the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency while avoiding the introduction of ad hoc constituencies, which is what the HDZ BiH has been insisting on.

However, Komsic has already told Izetbegovic that he cannot count on his consent for this model despite the fact that Izetbegovic has been trying for years to convince him that it should be accepted.

Komsic has said that is such a model is adopted, he will lodge a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights as he believes that the model introduces a new type of discrimination of BiH citizens in the election process, legalising unequal value of votes.

“Removal of ethnic prefixes not realistic”

Commenting on Palmer’s earlier statement that one of the solutions to the problem of election of the BiH Presidency members could be the removal of ethnic prefixes, both Komsic and Izetbegovic said that it was not realistic.

Komsic said the proposal meant finding a solution with which “everyone would be equally dissatisfied” while Izetbegovic said that it would require general consensus that was difficult to achieve but that it could be achieved if everyone found their interest in it.

The Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, said that none of what Palmer offered was acceptable, especially not the removal of ethnic prefixes, even though in previous negotiations Dodik had offered that the problem of electing BiH Presidency members be solved at least for the Serb entity by removing from the country’s constitution the provision envisaging that the Serb entity elects the Serb member of the collective state presidency.

“A Serb, a Croat and a Bosniak are elected to the BiH Presidency and that will happen whether ones likes it or not or the law will remain in its current form and it will again lead to other problems in BiH because the Croat people are completely outvoted,” Dodik said in a comment on Palmer’s mediation mission.

HDZ BiH leader Dragan Covic has “resolutely rejected” the notion of removing the ethnic prefixes when electing members of the state presidency, pointing to the need to “ensure the equality of the three constituent peoples,” Hina said.