Bosnian Jewish leader targets elections bias

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The leader of Bosnia’s Jewish community took legal action to end the country’s ban on minority presidential candidates. The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday that Jakob Finci petitioned the European Court of Human Rights over the Bosnian constitution, which allows only Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Croats to run for the presidency. Jews would thus be ineligible from running. Bosnia has a system in which three presidents run the country in cooperation. Some 500 Jews live in Bosnia, nearly all in Sarajevo. Officials in Bosnia have acknowledged for several years that the fledgling constitution might need some improvements in the field of human rights, but getting agreement across ethnic and religious lines is a major challenge for any legal change.

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