"Bosniaks are blocking the work of BiH institutions"

However, the strongest Bosniak party SDA boycotted the House of Peoples session, therefore blocking the rule of law and refusing to respect the foundations established by the Dayton Peace Agreement, which results in further endangering peace and stability in BiH and the entire region.

Urgent session of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, requested by delegates in the Croat Caucus Dragan Čović, Lidija Bradara, Marina Pendeš and Bariša Čolak to consider the proposal on Amendments to the BiH Election Law by urgent procedure, was not held due to lack of quorum.

At the beginning of the session, the chairman of the House of Peoples, Dragan Čović, said that the session was attended by 10 delegates - five from the Croat Caucus, four from the Serb Caucus, and one delegate from the Bosniak Caucus.

The session was not attended by delegates from the Bosniak Caucus: Asim Sarajlić, Amir Fazlić, Bakir Izetbegović and Munib Jusufović, and the delegate from the Serb Caucus Mladen Bosić.

According to the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Peoples, the quorum consists of nine delegates, provided that at least three Bosniak, three Croat and three Serb delegates are present.

"Given that we have a very clear announcement that some Bosniak Caucus representatives will not appear at the session, I see it as a classic blockade of BiH institutions", stated Čović.

After stating that there was no quorum for holding an urgent session, Čović proposed that, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, a new session be scheduled for tomorrow at 10.00 with the same agenda.

"Every time we talked about the Election Law, we could hear a clear statement that it is not good that Bosniaks elect a Croat member of the BiH Presidency and Croat delegates to the House of Peoples. When we needed to solve that, we had obstructions. Sometimes Bosniak parties refused to even negotiate, and sometimes they said that they would accept the proposal of the international community in advance", said Čović.

He accused the SDA of wanting to "take over" the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The SDA wants to elect both the Croat member of the BiH Presidency and delegates to the House of Peoples", he reiterated.

As a reason why he thinks so, he cited the SDA's proposal that the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament be like the Council of Peoples in Republika Srpska.

He also stated that today's absence was a blockade of institutions by those who "swear" to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This is an unprecedented blockade, without sugercoating. It is unprecedented, because someone comes out in front of you before the session and says they don't like something. That should be said at the session itself. We gave a chance for an agreement, in order to create democratic preconditions for conducting elections", Čović claimed.

Unlike SDA president Bakir Izetbegovic, who expects the General Elections to be held this year with anti-constitutional Election Law which enables Bosniak hegemony, Čović believes there are no formal and legal conditions for holding elections. He cited the actions of the SDA as confirmation that there are no conditions for holding elections. He said that this party was "the source of the crisis".

Yesterday, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) stated that conditions for considering and adopting amendments to the HDZ-proposed Election Law were not met, and asked the Speaker of the House of Peoples of BiH PA to cancel the urgent session he had scheduled.

The SDA stated that the proposal on Amendments to the Election Law, which was proposed by the Croat Caucus in the House of Peoples of BiH Parliamentary Assembly for urgent consideration, is completely unacceptable.

Dnevnik.ba