MEETING HALFWAY

Local Elections in B&H

AIM Sarajevo, 31 january, 1997

The Interim Electoral Commission of the OSCE has finally determined rules for the forthcoming elections in Bosnia & Herzegovina scheduled for 12 and 13 July this year. The fact which is at this moment essential, and which was confirmed by the head of the OSCE mission Robert Frowick, is that the rules for municipal elections were adopted by a consensus. This practically means that the ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) support them, and that there should not be any disassociation of the authorities from the rules. Party wishes have been coordinated with the possibilities and attempts of the international community to implement the Dayton accords as consistently as possible. In other words, to give a signal to the refugees abroad who are patiently waiting to return to Bosnia & Herzegovina that they can do it. The significance of the consensus with which the rules were determined lies in the fact that there will be no dilemma in public whether members of the Interim Electoral Commission have signed the rules in their own name or in the name of the ruling parties, and even nations they represent.

Of course, this will not eliminate the inevitable question of the notorious Form P-2 concerning which swords have been crossed so far and which was a threat contained in former rules that ethnic cleansing in B&H would be legalized.

Whether this form, well amended and under strict control of the international mediators transformed into paragraphs 503, 504, 505, has really lost its previous importance, it is very difficult to state with certainty.

A detailed analysis of the mentioned rules shows that it is quite evident that in the forthcoming local elections, all those who wish to vote in municipalities in which they had not lived before the war, will have to make quite an effort and procure quite a lot of documents. In other words, in comparison with the former ones which were based exclusively on the mere voters' wish, criteria have now been made more rigid. In order to vote in a municipality where they had not lived before the war, especially refugees who are at the moment abroad must have a valid document to prove that they have an apartment, a house, but also a job in the municipality which they wish to make their home in. And this is how the notorious P-2 form was evaded. Many will be in this way enabled to return to their homes, but it will resolve the dilemma especially for those citizens who are abroad and who have tenancy rights and have lost all hope that they would ever return to their apartments, and therefrom to their country.

As concerning displaced persons within B&H, the new rules prescribe that all those who were citizens of B&H on 6 April 1992 and who have for some reason changed the place of residence within B&H, may register to vote in person in the municipality where they are living now and where they intend to continue living. They need a certificate on continuous residence in the current municipality since 31 July, 1996, or before, issued by a relevant municipal agency or a refugee card of a displaced person issued on the mentioned date.

This possibility which was left to displaced persons, on the one hand conceals the camouflaged P-2 form, that is, it enables displaced persons around B&H to remain living in their new places of residence. However, due to increased control of the international community, it will not be possible for the displaced persons to remain in houses, apartments, which their owners and holders of tenancy rights wherever they may be have expressed a wish to return to. In such cases, the authorities of the entity are charged with the task to provide housing for those who do not wish to return to their previous municipalities.

It is quite certain that the new rules include some instruments of protection of the rights of refugees and displaced persons and that they can be avoided only by specific counterfeit and forged documents. However, the question which imposes itself is whether the international community has by adopting the new rules together with the ruling parties found the best variant, on the one hand, how to bring back the enormous number of refugees from abroad, and on the other, to meet the interests of these parties and still enable them to at least to a certain extent round off their national territories.

MIRJANA MICEVSKA