Bosnia’s largest Croat and Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) parties agreed on Wednesday, under international mediation, on the way the southern town of Mostar should be governed, paving the way for the first local vote there in 12 years.
Mostar, famous for its Ottoman-era Old Bridge, has not held local elections since 2008 because the two rival ethnic parties failed to enforce a 2010 constitutional court decision on power-sharing, leaving the town without a city council and halting development and investment.
Bosnia is set to hold a local election on Nov. 15, but election authorities had exempted Mostar due to the lack of election rules for the city.
Heads of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) signed an agreement in Mostar defining the election rules for the city and its statute.
“SDA and HDZ will submit the proposal…to the parliament next week so that elections here can be held alongside the Bosnia-wide local vote,” HDZ head Dragan Covic told reporters in Mostar.
The deadlock in Mostar, divided between Bosniaks and Croats since the end of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, stems from the distrust between the two groups. The Bosniaks, who are the minority in Mostar want safeguards to make sure they are not out-voted. The Croats, in the majority, want the town unified.
“This is a feast for democracy,” said Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, who oversaw negotiations between the two parties along with the U.S. Ambassador and the head of the European Union delegation.
Western peace overseers have tried for years to unite the city and create a single administration.
Covic and Bakir Izetbegovic, the head of SDA, said the election law could be changed by the end of 2021.
REUTERS