Dodik, Croat party team up for elections

The leaders of Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia (HDZ BiH) and Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) have agreed to cooperate. Dragan Covic and Milorad Dodik decided to team up for the October elections, by supporting each other’s candidates for members of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dodik, Croat party team up for elections After talking to Covic, Dodik announced that he would sign the agreement on cooperation between SNSD and HDZ at the end of April in Mostar, which would include cooperation on all levels of government in Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to Dodik, the two parties have been acting in unison for some time regarding all important issues, "not in order to create problems for a third party, but because their interests coincide". The SNSD leader, who is also the Republic of Srpska (RS) premier, stated that it was a joint assessment, bearing in mind “the maximalist requests” of Bosniak (Muslim) side, that it should be provided that “true” Croats were present in the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina rather than “camouflage” ones, "such as current member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Presidency Zeljko Komsic who had been elected as a candidate of the Social Democratic Party". The post-Dayton Bosnia is made up of the Serb RS, and Muslim-Croat Federation. Speaking about the announced international conference where Bosnian leaders are supposed to obligate themselves regarding constitutional changes on the Bosnia-Herzegovina level, Dodik said that RS would continue the dialogue but that its opinions concerning the constitutional changes "were well-known". “The implementation of the decision of the (Human Rights) Court in Strasbourg is not disputable, but bringing in everything that was forcibly transferred to level of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as questioning of the entity voting is disputable,” Dodik said. The Strasbourg ruling he mentioned refers to the fact that ethnic minorities other than Serbs, Muslims and Croat presently cannot run for some offices under the Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution. Dodik also commended efforts made by Spain, "keeping in mind different interest in Bosnia". “I don’t have a declaration, I can only speak in principle. It’s problematic that the current leaders are assuming obligations for future leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina because nobody can know what the configuration will be after the elections,” Dodik said. Covic for his part said that he had become familiar with the text of the declaration during his visit to Madrid this week, which Bosnian representatives should try to harmonize with representatives of the EU and U.S. at the meeting in Sarajevo on April 6-7. He pointed out that he had informed the RS PM about the content of the document whose signatories would launch changes of the Bosnian Constitution after the elections in October according to the principles defined in it. Stating that the principles were fairly wide, Dodik said that there were some elements which had been included "based on opinions of certain political leaders, which should be entered into the Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina". Covic explained that as far as he was concerned there were two disputable issues in the text, adding that leaders should be given a chance to agree in the coming days. “If the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina agree on the declaration text during the meeting in Sarajevo at the beginning of April, then the document could be signed in Madrid on April 19-20,” he stressed. Covic added that the next meeting would be organized after that, on June 1-2 in Bosnia-Herzegovina where some issues regarding processes such as EU visa liberalization, would be discussed.

Dodik, Croat party team up for elections

After talking to Čović, Dodik announced that he would sign the agreement on cooperation between SNSD and HDZ at the end of April in Mostar, which would include cooperation on all levels of government in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

According to Dodik, the two parties have been acting in unison for some time regarding all important issues, "not in order to create problems for a third party, but because their interests coincide".

The SNSD leader, who is also the Republic of Srpska (RS) premier, stated that it was a joint assessment, bearing in mind “the maximalist requests” of Bosniak (Muslim) side, that it should be provided that “true” Croats were present in the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina rather than “camouflage” ones, "such as current member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Presidency Željko Komšić who had been elected as a candidate of the Social Democratic Party".

The post-Dayton Bosnia is made up of the Serb RS, and Muslim-Croat Federation.

Speaking about the announced international conference where Bosnian leaders are supposed to obligate themselves regarding constitutional changes on the Bosnia-Herzegovina level, Dodik said that RS would continue the dialogue but that its opinions concerning the constitutional changes "were well-known".

“The implementation of the decision of the (Human Rights) Court in Strasbourg is not disputable, but bringing in everything that was forcibly transferred to level of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as questioning of the entity voting is disputable,” Dodik said.

The Strasbourg ruling he mentioned refers to the fact that ethnic minorities other than Serbs, Muslims and Croat presently cannot run for some offices under the Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution.

Dodik also commended efforts made by Spain, "keeping in mind different interest in Bosnia".

“I don’t have a declaration, I can only speak in principle. It’s problematic that the current leaders are assuming obligations for future leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina because nobody can know what the configuration will be after the elections,” Dodik said.

Čović for his part said that he had become familiar with the text of the declaration during his visit to Madrid this week, which Bosnian representatives should try to harmonize with representatives of the EU and U.S. at the meeting in Sarajevo on April 6-7.

He pointed out that he had informed the RS PM about the content of the document whose signatories would launch changes of the Bosnian Constitution after the elections in October according to the principles defined in it.

Stating that the principles were fairly wide, Dodik said that there were some elements which had been included "based on opinions of certain political leaders, which should be entered into the Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina".

Čović explained that as far as he was concerned there were two disputable issues in the text, adding that leaders should be given a chance to agree in the coming days.

“If the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina agree on the declaration text during the meeting in Sarajevo at the beginning of April, then the document could be signed in Madrid on April 19-20,” he stressed.

Čović added that the next meeting would be organized after that, on June 1-2 in Bosnia-Herzegovina where some issues regarding processes such as EU visa liberalization, would be discussed.