On 10 November 2016, the Constitutional Court of BiH held its 45th regular session of the Grand Chamber.
The following is presented for illustration purposes only:
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina dismissed as inadmissible an appeal lodged by Mr. Ćamil Duraković against a Ruling of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina of 25 October 2016.
Namely, on 1 November 2016 the appellant lodged the appeal with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Ruling of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina of 25 October 2016, dismissing as ill-founded the appellant’s appeal against the Decision on establishing and announcing the 2016 local election results in Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed by the Central Election Commission of BiH on 17 October 2016.
The appellant also requested that the Constitutional Court issue an interim measure, ordering the Central Election Commission of BiH as follows: to suspend all actions and activities related to the announcement of final election results for Mayor of the Srebrenica Municipality, pending a final decision of the Constitutional Court or, in case that in the meantime the final election results were announced, to suspend the implementation of the Decision on the final election results for Mayor of the Srebrenica Municipality and that the public authorities elected in the 2012 municipal elections should exercise all the powers of the Municipal Assembly and the Municipal Mayor, pending a final decision of the Constitutional Court.
In connection with this, the Constitutional Court concluded, inter alia, that there was no violation of the appellant’s right, as the appellant had the possibility to stand as a candidate at the elections for Mayor of the Municipality, at which all voters, entered into the Central Voters’ Register for basic constituency Srebrenica, had the possibility to elect the Mayor without discrimination and on an equal footing, in accordance with the Election Law.
In addition, the Constitutional Court concluded that there was no violation of the appellant’s right to vote and to stand as a candidate in genuine, free and fair elections held at regular intervals on the basis of universal, equal and secret suffrage, which ensure the free expression of the will of the voters and where, in the circumstances of the present case, there was nothing to lead to the conclusion that the elections had not been fair and free or that the voters had been denied the possibility to express their will freely and to vote for the appellant as a candidate for Mayor, and where the voting and counting process had been independently supervised and the appellant had availed himself of the possibility to review the voting and counting process.
Furthermore, the Constitutional Court concluded that the appellant’s assertion that he had been discriminated against in the exercise of his passive electoral right was ill-founded and that there was no violation of the appellant’s right to vote and to stand as a candidate and to enjoy the rights and freedoms guaranteed to everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Constitutions of BiH and international treaties without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The Constitutional Court established that the appellant was not discriminated against in the exercise of his right to stand as a candidate at the elections for Mayor of the Municipality and that all voters entered into the Voters’ Register, without discrimination and on an equal footing, had the possibility to elect the Mayor.
In view of the Decision of the Constitutional Court in this case, the Constitutional Court of BiH concluded that it was not necessary to examine separately the appellant’s motion for an interim measure.
At its 45th session of the Grand Chamber, the Constitutional Court of BiH considered, inter alia, a number of appeals lodged in respect of the alleged violations of appellants’ constitutional rights by the ordinary courts. The following is presented for illustration purposes only:
The Constitutional Court decided a number of appeals related to a violation of the appellants’ right to a fair trial. In the cases where the Constitutional Court found a violation of the appellants’ right to a fair trial for the courts failed to take their decisions within a reasonable period of time, the ordinary courts were ordered to complete the proceedings as expeditiously as possible and to inform the Constitutional Court within three months from the date of submission of the decisions, on the measures taken to enforce the decisions.
The Constitutional Court rejected a number of appeals that were manifestly ill-founded or inadmissible. This relates to the cases wherein the Constitutional Court established that the appellants’ requests were unjustified, meaning that the facts such as they were presented to the Court by the appellants did not disclose any violation of the appellants’ rights safeguarded by the Constitution, or that the parties to the proceedings had to bear the consequences of an alleged violation of the rights protected by the Constitution.
All decisions taken at the session will be delivered to the appellants within a time-limit of one month and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
