Voting Rights Restrictions

The combination of territorial representation and ethnic representation raises serious human rights concerns. The current provisions deny BiH citizens who are not a member of one of the three constituent peoples the right to stand as a candidate for the Presidency. They deny citizens who are a member of one of the constituent peoples, but who happen to live in the wrong Entity, the right to stand as a candidate for the Presidency and they restrict the rights of citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice based solely on ethnicity. The Council of Europe has pointed out that these discriminatory provisions conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.²⁷⁹² As a result, the voting rights restrictions that are imposed by Article V directly contradict the human rights guarantees incorporated in Article II and Annex I of the Constitution. This position has been upheld in the judgment of the ECtHR in the case of Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina.²⁷⁹³