MFAEI lodges strong protest with BH Ambassador to Croatia Aleksandar Dragičević

This decision is particularly surprising because the citizenship certificates that are now questioned have normally been accepted in all previous election cycles by the Central Election Commission. The fact that displaced Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of the war, are denied registration after the expiry of the deadline for registration supports us in our doubts that this decision was made with good intentions.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration deems that the citizens interested in voting in the elections cannot be denied that right, but that the relevant state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina should assist them in realising in it the easiest way possible, especially because the people in question are refugees and displaced persons.

Their inability to exercise their voting rights means that they are being discriminated against, that their civil rights are being violated, that the results of local elections are being directly influenced through the establishment of monoethnic municipal and town councils, and ultimately that they are being prevented from returning to live in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Ministry has repeatedly stressed that the equality of all three constituent nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina is of vital importance for the survival and future of that country. Preventing just one nation from exercising its voting rights compromises these principles, and we deem that unacceptable and untenable.