WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2020) The United States praised political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina after they reached a deal to hold elections in the city of Mostar for the first time since 2008, State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on Thursday.
Bosnia is set to hold elections on November 15, but officials had planned to exclude Mostar from the vote because the city lacked election rules. On Wednesday, the leaders of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ-BiH) reached a deal on election rules for the city.
"The United States welcomes the agreement between the SDA and HDZ-BiH political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to restore the right of Mostar residents to elect their local government and end the decade-long impasse over the conduct of local elections," Ortagus said.
Ortagus said the agreement was advantageous for both the city and the country.
"Both SDA President Bakir Izetbegovic and HDZ-BiH President Dragan Covic demonstrated leadership and political courage in pursuit of the necessary compromise," she added. "The United States also commends the hard work of the two parties' local boards and the cooperative spirit in which they approached the negotiations."
The spokesperson added that Washington is hopeful that the agreement will be the first among many actions to empower the the country's citizens it proceeds toward Euro-Atlantic integration.
Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed independence and the Bosnian War erupted between Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croatians. The war was put to an end by the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which formed three new entities - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian-majority Republika Srpska and the self-governing Brcko District. Despite the agreement, internal political divisions still exist.
