2010–2011 Bosnia and Herzegovina government formation
Encyclopedia
Following the Bosnian-Herzegovinian elections
held on 3 October 2010, a process of formation of the country's Council of Ministers had begun. The resulting election has produced an immensely fragmented political landscape, resulting in no parliamentary majority almost a year after the election. The centralist Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
, largest in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
, and the Serb
autonomist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, largest in the Republika Srpska
, each have 8 MPs of the total 42 MPs of the country's House of Representatives
(28 from FB&H and 14 from RS). The crisis is also present on local levels, in the Federal entity.
Cabinet negotiations have continued for a very long time; Bosnia and Herzegovina had broken the record to form a government in Iraq
and was dangerously approaching the 2003-4 353 days Cambodia
world record, however a similar but more extreme government formation crisis lasts in the Kingdom of Belgium.
The European Union
and the Office of the High Representative have repeatedly attempted negotiations to appease the Bosniac-Bosnian and Serb-Croat divided political blocs, in parallel to the Bosnian constitutional crisis, all ending in failure. The peaks of the crisis were the moves of the Serb entity to schedule a referendum against the OHR, which were left later on. The Bosniac-Bosnian coalition insists that the seat will have to go to them as the party that received the largest number of votes, while the Serbian-Croatian alliance insists that due to the fact that according to tradition the next Prime Minister must be an ethnic Croat, it must come from an authentic Croat party (Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina
), and not the non-national SDP.
Slavko Kukić, a Croat member of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated for chairman in July by the country's presidency. Croat and Serb parties subsequently voted against the nomination. Although he received a majority of votes in the House of Representatives, he failed to receive the necessary 2/3 majority of votes from the Republika Srpska representatives.
On September 1, 2011 Peter Sørensen
was appointed European Union Special Representative, replacing Valentin Inzko
.
A round of talks between party leaders was held in Mostar
on September 5 hosted by Croat politicians Božo Ljubić
and Dragan Čović
, with Milorad Dodik
, Mladen Bosić, Sulejman Tihić
and Zlatko Lagumdžija
in attendance. The parties agreed to a further round of discussion in mid-September.
A meeting between the six major party leaders was held in Sarajevo
on September 15, hosted by Zlatko Lagumdžija
. Topics discussed at the meeting included holding a national census, military assets, and the Sejdić-Finci ruling. On the same day, an EU spokesperson warned that the country risked losing funding through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
if the political situation did not stabilize. Another meeting on 26 September 2011 failed, as well.
Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights
ruled that the ineligibility of minorities other than the country's three constitutional peoples to run for the House of Peoples or the Presidency was discriminatory. Parties have failed to agree on how to change the current electoral system.
, and prior to the Bosnian War
. Holding a census is a condition for the country's EU membership
.
exists in which the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers rotates between the three constitutional nationalities. In this case, it would be the turn for a Croat politician to chair the council. As the Croatian Democratic Union
and the Croatian Democratic Union 1990
received the overwhelming share of Croat votes in the 2010 elections, the parties have demanded that a member of one of the parties receive the position of chairman. SDP on the other hand, claims that the only necessity is the ethnicity of the individual, and not the party, demanding the right to appoint a Croat PM from the SDP ranks, calling upon the right of having assumed most votes nation-wide.
will be divided between the national government, the Federation, and Republika Srpska.
Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2010
Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 3 October 2010 for both the Federal government and the two entities.Voters elected 42 deputies to the State House of Representatives...
held on 3 October 2010, a process of formation of the country's Council of Ministers had begun. The resulting election has produced an immensely fragmented political landscape, resulting in no parliamentary majority almost a year after the election. The centralist Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multi-ethnic social-democratic political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The party is the successor of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was enlarged by the inclusion of the Socijaldemokrati BiH party to the original...
, largest in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line...
, and the Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
autonomist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, largest in the Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
, each have 8 MPs of the total 42 MPs of the country's House of Representatives
House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina , is one of the two chambers of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the other being the House of Peoples of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe house of representatives of BiH consists of 42 members which are elected by...
(28 from FB&H and 14 from RS). The crisis is also present on local levels, in the Federal entity.
Cabinet negotiations have continued for a very long time; Bosnia and Herzegovina had broken the record to form a government in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and was dangerously approaching the 2003-4 353 days Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
world record, however a similar but more extreme government formation crisis lasts in the Kingdom of Belgium.
The European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the Office of the High Representative have repeatedly attempted negotiations to appease the Bosniac-Bosnian and Serb-Croat divided political blocs, in parallel to the Bosnian constitutional crisis, all ending in failure. The peaks of the crisis were the moves of the Serb entity to schedule a referendum against the OHR, which were left later on. The Bosniac-Bosnian coalition insists that the seat will have to go to them as the party that received the largest number of votes, while the Serbian-Croatian alliance insists that due to the fact that according to tradition the next Prime Minister must be an ethnic Croat, it must come from an authentic Croat party (Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a political party of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an observer member of the European People's Party ....
), and not the non-national SDP.
Slavko Kukić, a Croat member of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated for chairman in July by the country's presidency. Croat and Serb parties subsequently voted against the nomination. Although he received a majority of votes in the House of Representatives, he failed to receive the necessary 2/3 majority of votes from the Republika Srpska representatives.
On September 1, 2011 Peter Sørensen
Peter Sørensen (politician)
Peter Sørensen is the European Union Special Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Career:A native of Denmark, Sørensen previously served as a legal advisor to High Representative Carl Bildt. Prior to his appointment to Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had served as High Representative from Macedonia...
was appointed European Union Special Representative, replacing Valentin Inzko
Valentin Inzko
Valentin Inzko is an Austrian diplomat of Carinthian Slovene origin. He is currently serving as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a role which he assumed on March 26, 2009. He is at the same time the European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and...
.
A round of talks between party leaders was held in Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
on September 5 hosted by Croat politicians Božo Ljubić
Božo Ljubic
Božo Ljubić is a Croat politician of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Ljubić is the current minister of transport and communication of Bosnia and Herzegovina.- Biography :...
and Dragan Čović
Dragan Covic
Dragan Čović is a Croat politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Čović is the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently Čović is under indictment from the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for misuse of office.-Career:Čović worked for the airplane...
, with Milorad Dodik
Milorad Dodik
Milorad Dodik , is the President of Republika Srpska, and the president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats political party. He graduated from the Belgrade University of Political Sciences .-Political career:...
, Mladen Bosić, Sulejman Tihić
Sulejman Tihic
Sulejman Tihić is a Bosniak politician, a leading member of Party of Democratic Action .Tihić was born in the town of Bosanski Šamac in northern Bosnia. He obtained a degree in Law from the University of Sarajevo...
and Zlatko Lagumdžija
Zlatko Lagumdžija
Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija is a Bosnian politician and academic. He is known for his leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
in attendance. The parties agreed to a further round of discussion in mid-September.
A meeting between the six major party leaders was held in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
on September 15, hosted by Zlatko Lagumdžija
Zlatko Lagumdžija
Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija is a Bosnian politician and academic. He is known for his leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
. Topics discussed at the meeting included holding a national census, military assets, and the Sejdić-Finci ruling. On the same day, an EU spokesperson warned that the country risked losing funding through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, or simply IPA, is a new funding mechanism of the European Union. As of 2007, it replaced previous programmes such as the PHARE programme and CARDS...
if the political situation did not stabilize. Another meeting on 26 September 2011 failed, as well.
Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and HerzegovinaSejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and HerzegovinaSejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a case decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in 2009, in the first judgment finding a violation of Protocol No. 12...
In 2009, the European Court of Human RightsEuropean Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
ruled that the ineligibility of minorities other than the country's three constitutional peoples to run for the House of Peoples or the Presidency was discriminatory. Parties have failed to agree on how to change the current electoral system.
National census
Bosnia and Herzegovina has not held an official national census since 1991 while still a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, and prior to the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. Holding a census is a condition for the country's EU membership
Future enlargement of the European Union
The future enlargement of the European Union is theoretically open to any European country which is democratic, operates a free market and is willing and able to implement all previous European Union law...
.
Chairman of the Council of Ministers
The major Croat (HDZ and HDZ 1990) and Serb parties (SNSD and SDS) contend that a gentlemen's agreementGentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written, oral, or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or through mutually beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties...
exists in which the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers rotates between the three constitutional nationalities. In this case, it would be the turn for a Croat politician to chair the council. As the Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
and the Croatian Democratic Union 1990
Croatian Democratic Union 1990
The Croatian Democratic Union 1990 is a political party of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It split of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is led by Božo Ljubić. In the 2006 it was the leading member of the Croats Together coalition....
received the overwhelming share of Croat votes in the 2010 elections, the parties have demanded that a member of one of the parties receive the position of chairman. SDP on the other hand, claims that the only necessity is the ethnicity of the individual, and not the party, demanding the right to appoint a Croat PM from the SDP ranks, calling upon the right of having assumed most votes nation-wide.
EU funding
The government of Bosnia and Herzegovina must agree as to how funds available through the EU's Instrument for Pre-Accession AssistanceInstrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, or simply IPA, is a new funding mechanism of the European Union. As of 2007, it replaced previous programmes such as the PHARE programme and CARDS...
will be divided between the national government, the Federation, and Republika Srpska.