Home > 1.2 Equal suffrage > BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA - Amicus Curiae Brief for the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Mode of Election of Delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 
 
 
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Paragraph 53
 

The calculation for the allocation of seats in this House can be seen from two different perspectives: (1) from the perspective of an individual canton of the Federation or of an individual citizen – either could arguably see it as disproportionate and lacking in equality; or (2) from the perspective of the Federation and the State of BiH – which can arguably see it as not arbitrary. In any case, it is designed to provide for a disproportionate reflection of mandates as across the 10 cantons. As a whole, the relevant provisions of the Election Law of BiH (i.e. Articles 10.10, 10.12, 10.15, 10.16 and 20.16A), create a system of indirect election that could be described as so circumscribed as to constitute a form of selection, respectively allocating seats to constituent peoples and cantons. The overall result is already dictated by the Constitution of the Federation as amended to comply with the Constitutional Court decision of 2002 on constituent peoples.