Voters in Bosnia's general election yesterday (October 1st) pushed the system to its absurd--but logical--extreme: it looks increasingly likely that Željko Komšić from the non-nationalist SDP might be elected Croat member of Bosnia's three-member presidency, with a substantial chunk of his vote coming from ethnic Bosniaks. The reason is simple: while the three co-presidents are representatives of Bosnia's three constituent peoples (Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks), voting is organized by entity. Residents of RS vote for the Serb member while residents of the Croat-Bosniak Federation vote for the Croat and Bosniak members. The SDP recognized that it stood no chance of winning against either incumbent Sulejman Tihić nor indeed Haris Silajdžić, whose victory last night was unexpectedly convincing, so they presented a candidate for the Croat member. Incumbent Ivo Miro Jović, who made a scene at the TV studio and insulted journalists there, announced that "Ivo Miro Jović will be the Croat member of the B-H Presidency or the Presidency will cease to exist," in a remarkable display of his understanding of how democracy works.
Expect preliminary results for the parliamentary elections (both at entity and central level)sometime tonight local time (press conference announced for 9pm).
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Yeah way to enhance the image of the HDZ!
The latest article has Jovic slightly ahead for the Croat seat for the Presidency.
Of course, not all of the votes have been tallied yet; and it looks like it is still up in the air as to who will exactly be the Croat member of the Presidency.
Here is the article where they make mention of Jovic's slight lead:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/79799,CST-NWS-bos02.article
I've just read other sources that made it seem as if Komsic's lead is very solid.
Which has left me, very confused.
Although I must admit, I would be very happy if a candidate from the SDP was elected to at least one of the chairs for the Presidency.
Cross-pollination is good.
Well the way I see it, is at least a certain number of Croats had to have voted for the other guy to have Jovic not win.
Maybe the real story is HDZ isn't as powerful as it was.
The only way around it would be to have ethnicaly segregated primary elections or something.
We have the party segregated primaries in the U.S. maybe it could be done that way.
Still how would foreign election observers know who was what
ethnicity?
I agree with Katja.
Komsic's lead was too great for it to be attributed just to Bosniaks voting for Komsic.
There had to be a good number of Croats as well voting for him.
I don't think ethnically segregated elections is a good idea though.
Ante, last time I checked, the Bosnian constitution did not specify that the Croat member of the presidency had to be a Croatian citizen, nor did it say that the Serb member had to be a Serbian citizen. As for the language, if Croatian is the language spoken in Croatia, then it's only fair that Komsic doesn't speak it -- after all, he's from Bosnia and would, according to this logic, speak Bosnian. If Croatian, by contrast, is the language spoken by Croats wherever they may live, let's say in Sarajevo, then surely he does speak it.
I believe Komšić is not the only atheist Croat, but it's not important anyway, if the Catholics want to elect an atheist, so be it. The voters decide in the end.
In Slovenia for example, the only conditions for president are Slovenian citizenship and 18 years of age (and not being proclaimed insane of course). The people could then decide whether they want a president who is (e.g.) black Muslim Swahili-only speaker who just got the citizenship a year ago and is jailed for life in Canada.
As for his potential Croatian citizenship, it would be easier to discuss if you provided some detailed sources.
What I don't get is how Haris is always described as a 'hardliner' for insisting that all people should have equal rights as citizens regardless of ethnicity. The post-Dayton world is pretty screwed if that is regarded as a hardline position.
Anyway, I think we are moving forward, though, with a strategy of one group electing moderates to piss off another. Maybe this is a way of channelling inat for a positive electoral purpose?
What silly reasoning.
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