After BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković realized that withdrawing staff from the BiH Embassy in Serbia would not be possible, he summoned two embassy employees for what were described as consultations involving civil servants and technical staff, BiH Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandar Vranješ said.
“There is no practice anywhere in the diplomatic world of summoning an embassy’s technical staff for political consultations,” Vranješ said.
He explained that two embassy employees, one of whom serves as president of the polling station committee and the other as a substitute member, are currently officially listed as being on a business trip.
According to Vranješ, the employees have not formally been withdrawn from the embassy.
“Then he came up with something entirely new, something that has not existed in practice before — summoning civil servants and technical staff for consultations. He was aware, and lawyers at the ministry probably told him, that he could not simply withdraw them as he wished, so he came up with what he calls consultations,” Vranješ said.
He argued that such consultations have no precedent in international diplomatic practice.
“Nowhere in diplomatic practice are technical staff summoned for political consultations. It would be like summoning a driver,” he added.
Vranješ noted that the BiH Central Election Commission appointed the two employees to the polling station committee following a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For that reason, he said he had informed the Central Election Commission about the situation because he could not be certain that the two polling station committee members would be available on Sunday to carry out their election duties.
Preparations for the election at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade have therefore raised questions regarding the composition of the polling station committee.
The two embassy employees appointed to the committee by the Central Election Commission are currently not in Belgrade.
Vranješ has asked the Central Election Commission to determine whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will return them to Belgrade before election day so they can perform the duties for which they were appointed.
Source: RTRS
