ZAGREB, October 8, 2018 – Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that electing Željko Komšić as the Croat member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina tripartite presidency was not good for the Croat people and for Bosnia and Herzegovina in general.
“Once again, owing to a positive legal framework that exists in Bosnia, we are in a situation in which members of one constituent people on the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are electing a representative of another constituent people,” Plenković said.
“I don’t think this is good and I believe that the goal is to have all three constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina feel good and devoted to their homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Plenković said.
He said he regretted that Dragan Čović of the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH was not elected to that post. “In any case, it is not good for this scenario to be repeated,” the Croatian prime minister said.
Despite that, he welcomed the holding of the general elections in Bosnia and congratulated all election winners, stressing that Zagreb would continue good cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to election officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Front (DF) candidate Željko Komšić, Democratic Action Party (SDA) candidate Šefik Džaferović and Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik have won seats on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s three-person presidency.
Komšić, a Social Democrat who has served two terms in the presidency, was leading with 49.5 percent of the vote over Dragan Čović from the largest Croat HDZ party.
Čović, who had 38 percent, conceded defeat but warned of a “never-seen-before” crisis in the country.
Komšić sought to reassure all voters, saying, “I will serve all citizens, even if they didn’t vote for me.”
On Friday, Komšić criticised Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for coming to Mostar to give his support to Čović, saying that officials from Serbia and Croatia were barging in Bosnia’s territory like bandits and meddling into Bosnia’s election process.
