BiH parties to start consultations on new prime minister

13/11/2007

If no agreement on a new prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina is reached within a month, the country will have to hold early parliamentary elections.

(Office of the High Representative - 13/11/07; AFP, AP, Reuters, DPA, AKI, B92 - 12/11/07)

Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Nikola Spiric addresses reporters in Sarajevo on Monday (November 12th) after the presidency accepted his resignation. [Getty Images]

Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) tripartite presidency said on Monday (November 12th) it had accepted Prime Minister Nikola Spiric's resignation.

"I thought it would be good for the country if Spiric withdrew his resignation, but he insisted on it," Haris Silajdzic, the Bosniak member of the three-man presidency, told reporters. "We are launching consultations with parties for a new cabinet."

The presidency, currently headed by Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic, must propose to parliament a candidate for prime minister within 30 days. If they fail to do so, early parliamentary elections will have to be called.

Spiric tendered his resignation on November 1st to protest High Representative Miroslav Lajcak's decision to impose reforms, aimed at improving the functionality of state institutions, including Spiric's cabinet.

On October 19th, the Slovak diplomat announced a series of measures including changes to the quorum rules governing the work of the BiH Council of Ministers and parliament that would make it more difficult for members of the two bodies to block the passage of decisions and legislation by boycotting sessions.

Lajcak said that unless the measures are implemented by December 1st, he will use his powers as the top international administrator in BiH to impose them.

Bosnian Serb politicians immediately rejected the proposed steps as unconstitutional and in violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 conflict in BiH. Claiming that the measures would allow Bosniaks and Croats to outvote them, they threatened to leave all state-level institutions.

Spiric, who is a member of Republika Srspka (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and who will remain as acting prime minister until a new cabinet is appointed, was the first Bosnian Serb to quit his post. His move followed a declaration by representatives of the major powers overseeing BiH's post-conflict recovery, expressing full support for Lajcak and his decisions.

Dodik said on Monday that the SNSD would take part in political talks to choose a replacement for Spiric, provided the High Representative "withdraws or amends" his decision. Lajcak said on Tuesday he was still awaiting an answer from the RS about the legal interpretation of the proposed amendments sent to the entity for consideration.

"The decision of the High Representative is in force and is not negotiable," his office said last week.

Lajcak is due to brief the UN Security Council about the current political and security situation in BiH on Thursday. He will tell the 15-nation body that the two scenarios the country faces are "escalation of the artificial political crisis, which leads to isolation, or subsiding of the political crisis and moving forward on the European road", his office said on Tuesday.