HDZ BiH leader Dragan Covic on Friday expressed the expectation that High Representative Christian Schimdt would impose amendments to the election law, which is according to him a condition for Bosnia to obtain EU candidate status.

If the High Representative intervened twice over the past two months in the election law, then I expect that process to be brought to completion. This is a vital issue for the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Covic told a press conference in Vitez, where a two-day party meeting had been held ahead the general elections in the country set for early October.

Over the past month and a half, High Representative Schmidt has twice imposed technical amendments to the election law, including ensuring the financing of elections. In the meantime, he has given up on political reforms, including the implementation of the Constitutional Court ruling in the Ljubic case. That ruling insists on preventing the practice of outvoting of less numerous people and ensuring legitimate political representation of the three constituent peoples.

Covic claims that changing the election law is directly related to obtaining EU candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of the year.

Not implementing decisions by the BiH Constitutional Court is the most dangerous thing that can happen in the country. We need a change to the election law and without that we cannot even request a candidate status, he added.

He confirmed that after Schmidt’s call to try to reach an agreement within six weeks, which expire in mid-September, he had talked with leaders of most Bosniak and Serb political parties. According to him, it is not realistic that an agreement on electoral reform will be reached before the elections.

Asked how the parties gather around the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian National Assembly will react if the election law is not reformed, which would remove the risk of Croats being outvoted by the four times more numerous Bosniaks, Covic said this party would offer solutions for the reorganization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including a territorial reorganization of the country.

Intensive work is being done on that. This means giving a more rational solution. As some propose that this be a civil state freed from the shackles of entities, it is legitimate that we propose a change in line with the constitutional changes that would ensure something like that, said Covic.