Nezavisne novine: BANJALUKA – Heads of local communities in the Republic of Srpska, in future might be elected by the municipal MPs, and not by citizens, after the Government yesterday unexpectedly proposed to the entity parliament urgent changes of the related laws.
In the wake of scheduling local elections, the Government under urgent procedure directed to the parliament changes of the Law on Local Self Governance and the Election Law of the RS. If this proposal receives the green light from the Assembly, the municipal mayors and mayors would be elected by the MPs of the local parliaments, and not the voters as it is the case now.
With the old manner of election, which already yesterday caused a great resistance of the NGO sector, in the Government claim, the political instability of the local communities would be avoided. The data of ten started motions for recall of directly elected mayors and blockage of some municipalities, they say in the Government, says enough on the inefficiency of direct election of the mayor, which was introduced in the electoral practice in 2004.
Zoran Lipovac, the Minister of Administration and Local Self Governance, believes that return to the old system would not deny the citizens the democracy, because it is in their interest, as he sais, not to face the instability of the local system.
“By returning to indirect system of election most of these problems will be gone”, said Lipovac.
In the Centre of Civil Initiatives, on the other hand, they claim that the situation is completely opposite and they appeal to the MPs not to listen to the Government.
“This is outrageous and outside of all democratic principles”, claims Željko Ninković from the CCI, who himself came yesterday to the Government and faced arguments with Minister Lipovac.
He objected to the Government for proposing this Law without any public discussion and without including the citizens in the whole process, so they themselves could say whether they want to elect the mayor themselves or have it imposed by the political will of the municipal majority.
However, he expressed his hope that the MPs would rise above the “small political interests” and vote against the Government’s proposal.
According to the words of Branko Petrić, the member of the Election Commission of BiH, it is generally considered that a direct election is a more democratic manner of election, but the authorities in Banja Luka, as he said, have a right to change the Law, if the so want.
“That is a matter of a political decision, because it is about the competency which falls under the jurisdiction of the entities. Our job is to implement their decisions, what ever they might decide”, said Petrić.
In the last two years, municipal majorities in 10 municipalities tried to recall the mayor and bring him to referendum so he would face the will of the citizens. They succeeded in five municipalities, where the mayors were recalled.
Opposition against
The Government’s plan on return of the old manner of election of the municipal mayors faced the objection of the opposition, but also the abstentions of some of the SNSD coalition partners.
The SDS is the sharpest to the Government’s plan, convinced that the changes of the law are proposed because, as they say, the rating of the SNSD and the PDP is diminishing.
“It is obvious that the authorities estimated that they cannot have mayors at direct elections, so as a consequence of that panic they resourced to changes”, said Mladen Bosić, the president of the SDS.
The DNS as well, the coalition partner of the SNSD, believes that the proposed solutions are bad, although, as they say, they do not mind any kind of elections. According to Marko Pavić, the leader of the DNS, the return to old system would make municipal mayors obedient to the parties, and not the people who answer to the citizens.
Branislav Borenović, the Head of the PDP Caucus, estimated that both systems – direct and indirect – have both good and bad sides, but he said that there is a lot of reasons that their MPs should raise their hands for the Government’s proposal.
Socialist Party, on the other hand, claims that the return to the old system is very good, since, according to the words of Petar Đokić, the president of the SP, there were a lot of misuses in relation assembly – mayor.