Ahmetović threatens to endanger Izetbegović, Mehmedović, and Osmanović

From the moment the SDA president, the late Sulejman Tihić, said in one of his last interviews that he would no longer run for that position at the party's Congress planned for May 2015, an unprecedented, frenzied presidential race for the "number one in SDA" has begun, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

As a reminder, the first significant polarization within the SDA, which only intensified over time but was kept under control thanks to Tihić's composure and willingness to compromise all these years, occurred at the 2009 SDA Congress when Bakir Izetbegović lost to Tihić, who was re-elected as SDA president. Incidentally, Tihić was appointed his successor by the first SDA president, the late Sulejman Tihić, at the 2001 Congress.

The appetites of individuals grew over time, and passions began to flare up when Tihić withdrew completely from party and political life due to his struggle with a serious illness.

Since 2009, Izetbegović has had a burning desire to get revenge on everyone who helped Tihić win with their delegate votes back then. From that May five years ago, his desire to take over the SDA has grown day by day.

The first opportunity to show that he had taken the party into his own hands was from the day Tihić, overwhelmed by a serious illness, withdrew from public life. At that time, Izetbegović, as the deputy SDA president, began to strengthen his faction, in which Denis Zvizdić and Aljoša Čampara are dominant.

As they gradually realized that Tihić's health was deteriorating, and their sick ambitions to remain in their positions overcame their previous loyalty to the SDA president, Amir Zukić and Asim Sarajlić joined Izetbegović's team.

Evidence of how much he has "grown bold" in his intention to sit in the party's presidential chair can be seen in his statements when submitting candidate lists in June this year, which were met with human and moral condemnation from the public, regardless of whether it was favorable to Tihić or not. Izetbegović then said that the SDA president did not have the courage or the lists to sign.

Whether Bakir will take over the SDA into his own hands or not largely depends on who will oppose him at the Congress, which will be held earlier than scheduled, or at the party convention.

However, it will not be easy for Izetbegović to take the helm of the SDA, because, as things stand now (which does not mean the number of ambitious individuals will not increase as time goes by), he faces quite strong and experienced politicians such as Šemsudin Mehmedović, Adil Osmanović, who is a dangerous opponent, although he has been shyly showing his ambitions to take over the SDA all along, and finally Sadik Ahmetović, whose statement at the commemoration of the SDA president's death, read between the lines, was a message not only to Izetbegović but also to others who show a desire to succeed Tihić.

The SDA Vice President, Sadik Ahmetović, said the following in a statement to FTV's Dnevnik:

"I am sure that BiH is currently below the level of progress it was at when Sulejman Tihić was in the Presidency of BiH. The reason for this is that those who came after him have set Bosnia and Herzegovina back, and it will take a long time for BiH to reach the level it was at in 2006."

In this way, Ahmetović not only belittled and minimized Izetbegović's four-year mandate in the Presidency of BiH but also openly stated that he, as such, is not capable of taking over the SDA.

With this statement, the SDA Vice President has positioned himself as a serious contender for the position of party president.

Ahmetović, as a reminder, survived the Srebrenica genocide. His political engagement so far has been based solely on helping genocide victims, assisting his hometown, and leading the Srebrenica SDA. Through his work and engagement, both when he was an SDA representative in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and later in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, he has always shown that his priority is the care for returnees to Republika Srpska, and thus for a strong and powerful state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is once again fighting for a position as a state representative from the territory of Republika Srpska.

HOW BAKIR CHANGED HIS MIND

"Politics in Bosnia in the next period will be dealt with either by incorrigible enthusiasts who count on sacrifice in advance or by naive careerists for whom this choice will backfire," Izetbegović said in August 2000.

Three years later, in December 2003, he said:

"I have no desire or interest in becoming the SDA president. I have no ambitions to be a leader."

Obviously, in the meantime, his desires, interests, and ambitions have changed, and Bakir has embarked on a fight to take over the SDA.