Efforts to ‘impose’ election law in Bosnia and Herzegovina cause crisis

by ANKASAM Ekip

Bosnia and Herzegovina has once again loomed into chaos with the claims that High Representative Christian Schmidt has been imposing an amendment to the election law for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBIH).

Schmidt’s plan to reportedly impose an election law without the consent of the politicians led to protests across the country.

Divided into two different entities, the FBIH and Republika Srpska, the country consists of 10 units called cantons.

The amendment will be effective in the FBIH and it will be based on the last census conducted in 2013.

According to the 2013 census, the population of the country is around 3.53 million.

While Bosniaks constitute 50.11% of the population in the country, the Serbians are 30.78%, and Croatians around 15.43%.

The Bosniaks are around 70.04% of the FBIH population, Croatians 22.4%, and Serbians constitute 3.6%.

If the Bosniak, Serbian, or Croatian population in a canton is less than 3%, that constituent nation will not have a representative in the House of Peoples of the FBIH parliament

Many believe that the new election law will make the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), known for its racist ideology, the key figure in the formation of the FBIH government.

Zeljko Komsic, supported by the Bosniaks, won the previous election for the Croatian membership of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency.

-AA

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