Bosnia: The great political farce

Four months after elections, the Bosnian Federation is still without a government or parliament, while nationalist leaders switch to opportunism and the world waits to see how the farce will end.


Commentary by Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch (08/02/07)

Over four months after general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation government and parliament have still not been formed, and power-sharing deals will take some time unless the international community steps in to make things happen.

Nationalist parties had easily won the 1 October general elections, but personal animosity and trademark opportunism among party leaders has made the forming of coalitions a difficult - and seemingly endless - task.

All campaign promises of economic reform and EU integration have been put on the back burner as party leaders spend months jockeying for higher positions in the hoped-for new government.

With the lack of a government and parliament, all institutions in the country's Bosniak- and Bosnian Croat-dominated Federation entity have been blocked, while the mandates of the outgoing government and parliament have ended.

Unlike the Federation, the forming of the government in Bosnia's second entity, the Bosnian Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, went smoothly, as the elections were swept by the Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by former entity prime minister Milorad Dodik.

As they have since the first post-war elections in 1996, politicians used nationalist rhetoric to win over their ethnic constituents - Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs - feeding on fears that one group could overpower the others.

Therefore, Bosniak nationalist parties campaigned on vows to suspend Republika Srpska and lift its separate entity status, which was formed during the war. Dodik, for his part, campaigned on a promise to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the day the polls closed, nationalism was quickly replaced by opportunism, as politicians began wrangling for positions and "power sharing" became the new word of the day.

Bosnia has not passed a single reform law for at least a year, in the absence of any real pressure from the international community. This year, there is simply no government to pass any laws.

The main difference this time around is that unlike previous coalition negotiations that saw nationalist parties battling it out for power, now the fighting is within the nationalist parties themselves, which have fractured. In the least, the international community should be pleased that former enemies divided strictly into Bosniak, Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb camps have now found a common language - opportunism.


The two main nationalist parties that took most of the Bosnian Croat and Bosniak votes - the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) - easily agreed as to which ministry would belong to which ethnic group.

However, two other nationalist parties that won fewer votes but are needed in order to form coalitions are demanding more ministries and parliamentary seats than would be representative of their election success. They have seen an opportunity to bargain for more and they are prepared to take it as far as they can, regardless of the instability it will lead to.

Out of six ministries in the federal government that the two main parties agreed would be led by Bosnian Croats, the HDZ is demanding five and its splinter party, the HDZ 1990 is seeking three. Out of 10 ministries that it was agreed would be given to Bosniak representatives, the SDA is demanding six and the smaller nationalist Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) is demanding just as many. Unfortunately, the math does not work out.

The real fight is over the most influential ministries - those that offer greater opportunities for illicit personal gain.

The Bosniak and Bosnian Croat parties have agreed that the Finance Ministry would be led by a Croat and the Industry Ministry by a Bosniak, but both are lucrative positions. In this fiscal year, the state-owned multi-million-dollar telecommunications companies are slated to be privatized, as are the electric companies and at least 10 other state-owned enterprises - and everyone wants in on the deal.

In the meantime, party leaders seem to be immune to criticism. After all, they say, Austria has taken just as long to form its government, so why shouldn't Bosnia.

This mess only confirms the necessity of the international community in Bosnia, where even when it does have a government, laws are not passed, consensus is rarely reached, and nothing much is accomplished. In the very least, the international community must play a supervisory and mediatory role. Crucially, the mandate of the international community's Office of High Representative (OHR), which as sweeping powers to hire and fire elected officials and pass laws, must be prolonged if the international community hopes to see any progress in Bosnia.


The international community was to close the OHR this June, after the end of mandate of the fifth high representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling. During his short, one-year mandate, not a single law was passed in Bosnia, as Schwarz-Schilling had vowed to test the waters to see if the local authorities were ready to go it alone. His strategy was a major deviation from that of his power-wielding predecessors. In the end, his attempt at giving local politicians a chance to run their own country failed miserably. But someone had to try it, and now we know for sure that Bosnia will not move forward without some serious international pushing and shoving.

Today's power-sharing negotiations - which used to take place in the offices of the OHR and took very little time, thanks to the international community's "take it or leave it" attitude – now take place in various restaurants and hotels around the capital, Sarajevo, and look set to last indefinitely.

The absolute champion of post-election political absurdity has been former Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite rotating presidency, HDZ leader Dragan Covic.

In late January, ISN Security Watch reported that Covic had been convicted of involvement in organized crime and abuse of power while he served as federal finance minister and deputy prime minister. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his crimes, and the court refused him bail, deeming him a flight risk.

However, not more than a day passed when the court changed its mind and granted him bail, with his and other party leaders claiming that the government could not be formed and coalition negotiations could not progress without the leader of the HDZ.

His €1.5 million (US$1.9 million) bail was quickly paid by "friends" of Covic.

Worse still is the fact that Covic, convicted of economic crimes and abuse of power, leads the party that will name the next justice minister. And it is widely expected that in the coming months, when a government is finally formed, Covic will see his verdict would be thrown out and retried.

The international community must end the farce - something plenty of ordinary Bosnians would prefer over this brand of absurd sovereignty.
ISN Security Watch - Bosnia: The great political farce
What a confusion.

Is there any way out?