OSCE Mission to BIH supports meeting of the Inter-Agency Working Group on election reform

KONJIC, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17 December 2015 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in co-operation with BiH Parliamentary Assembly and BiH Central Election Commission (CEC), organized the ninth two-day meeting of the Inter-Agency Working Group on changes to election legislation in BiH which concluded today in Konjic.

Among other issues discussed at the meeting was the implementation of recommendations stipulated in the final report by election observers of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) after the BiH general elections in 2014.

“Our Mission has played very important role in BiH election process for 20 years, and therefore we are aware of challenges that stand in front of this group,” said Jonathan Moore, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The OSCE Mission to BiH will provide all possible support to help this Working Group develop solutions and address the imperfections of the current law, including those indicated in ODIHR’s report from January 2015.”

Halid Genjac, a member of the Working group, said: “I believe that the OSCE Mission to BiH, following its mandate and appropriate standards, held a credible position because of which we readily accept all of their suggestions. We will still need a lot of will and readiness to make compromises and seek solutions regarding election legislation.”

Working Group member Ognjen Tadić said: “We are facing a serious crisis of democratic society and political parties today. We will make all efforts to propose solutions to establish a proper authority of political parties and have them regain the trust of citizens.”

Borjana Krišto, another member of the Working Group, said: “I hope that we will contribute to solutions which meet the interests of all the peoples and which will lead to establishment of constitutional and electoral equality of all citizens of BiH. This will further contribute to the democratization of the election process and its efficiency.”

The Inter-resource Working Group was established in order to develop amendments to the existing BiH Election Law and to the Law on the financing of political parties. As a part of ongoing co-operation among the BiH CEC, the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and the BiH Council of Ministers, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to support the Inter-Agency Working Group on changes to election legislation in BiH.