Croatian National Assembly


Croatian National Assembly is a political organisation of Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation serves as a platform to coordinate political and cultural activities of different parties and stakeholders in the Croatian community and to promote the initiative to create a federal unit with Croatian majority in the country.

History

In 2000, the Office of the High Representative in the country imposed amendments to the Federation's constitution and its electoral law, complicating its structure and impairing the parity and power-sharing between Bosniaks and Croats that was up until then in force in the Federation. Dissatisfied Croat politicians led by Ante Jelavić and HDZ set up a separate Croatian National Assembly on October 28 in Novi Travnik, held a referendum parallel to the elections and proclaimed Croatian federal unit in Croat-majority areas in the Federation. Croatian Self-Government was supposed to be a temporary solution until the controversial amendments and election rules are overturned. CNA's attempt ended shortly after a crackdown by SFOR and judiciary proceedings.
The controversial rules, dismantling checks and balances the Federation's Croats and Serbs had on the Federal legislature as well as the executive, particularly government-building, remained in rule. In 2010-14 Federation's Government was formed and Federation's president appointed without the consent of Croat deputies in the House of Peoples, receiving just 5 votes of confidence out of 17. In March 2011 country's Central Electoral Commission declared HoP's composition and decisions to be illegal, but the High Representative Valentin Inzko suspended CEC's decision. After Croatian politician Božo Ljubić filed an appeal, finally, in December 2016 Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina found the election system of the deputies in the House of Peoples unconstitutional and abrogated the controversial rules. Croatian National Assembly was thus reactivated in April 2011 in Mostar and started pushing for the reorganization of country and Federation, the change of the electoral system and a public broadcasting system in Croatian language, focused on Bosnian Croats.

Political positions

Dissatisfied with the representation of Croats in the Federation, Croat political parties insist on creating a Croat-majority federal unit instead of several cantons. SDA and other Bosniak parties strongly oppose this.
In the 2014 Bosnia elections, most of the parties participating in CNA's work formed a joint electoral coalition to contest the entity and state parliamentary elections as well as the elections for the Croat member of the state presidency. They won 14 out of 17 Croat seats in the House of Peoples in Federation's Parliament and 4 out of 5 Croat seats in the State House of Peoples, together with 19 seats in Federation's and 14 in State House of Representatives, respectively.
In January 2017, Croatian National Assembly stated that “if Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to become self-sustainable, then it is necessary to have an administrative-territorial reorganization, which would include a federal unit with a Croatian majority. It remains the permanent aspiration of the Croatian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Structure

CNA has a 29-member Presidency, headed by Dragan Čović. CNA's 13-member General Secretariat is chaired by Božo Ljubić as the president, while secretary-general is Josip Merdžo. The members of the General Secretariat are heads of CNA Departments. Presidency and General Secretariat are main bodies of CNA between its assembly sessions.
The members of CNA are all Croats who are elected
CNA has twelve departments:
Political parties supporting the work of Croatian National Assembly and whose members participate in its operations are: