Amra Babić on the Split with SDA: Despite Threats, I Opposed the Terror!

Amra Babić, the first female mayor of Visoko in its history and the first mayor in Europe to wear a hijab, is running as an independent candidate in the upcoming local elections. Behind her is a turbulent period about which she spoke on the show Zabranjeni forum PINK BH, Patria reports.

She says that one cannot speak of a fair and honest political campaign because she is exposed to threats, blackmail, and insinuations. She honestly says she does not know, but perhaps her first campaign in 2012 was also "dirty." Had she known, she would not have allowed it.

- Now I am running my own campaign, I am responsible for my own campaign, and I want to run it fairly, correctly, and democratically. I think political parties resort to various methods to achieve their political goals. For me, this is not a game of life and death; this is a personal resistance to say no to forces that want to intimidate us, bribe us, oppress us, and, so many years after the end of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, scare us with war and frighten us with forces of darkness.

She says that in the past four years of her mayoral term, she has endured a lot. For two years now, she has been working alone without the support of her parent party, the SDA, although this was an open secret in Visoko.

- We parted ways over very important issues, over the way of solving major problems, in attitudes, in the way of treating the opposition, in the way of conducting politics. Towards the end of this term, it became clear that they would not nominate me for this position in the local elections.

She says close friends told her: "Don't quarrel with the SDA, the SDA is a terrible force, the SDA is powerful, the SDA will destroy you, it will destroy your children, your family."

- I told them I will take the risk anyway. I think I have a life task to finish what I started, to show that one can be different in politics, that politics can be about taking care of the people, not about taking care of oneself.

She made the final decision about her candidacy after an open conversation with her children, who supported her.

- I had the option that the SDA would give me some position, "place" me somewhere, give me some fund. I think people see me as someone who opposed a terror - Babić said.

Her main motivation is to encourage other women to fight and to have as many of them as possible in politics, as well as to complete numerous started projects. The mayor of Visoko emphasized that there are no true leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, neither at the local nor at higher levels.

- We have private ownership over political parties; that is what distances me from any political option at this moment and places me among the independents. I do not see myself as a follower of any political leader at this time.

When asked whether the independent candidate is an extended arm of a political party, Babić says that by running as an independent, she violated the party's Statute and left it.

- Politically speaking, an independent candidate is independent of any political option except the political option called the will of the people. I want to be a representative of the people, to promote through my work what is good for all people, not just for a group of individuals and for one political option. I want to work for everyone.