Amra Babić on leaving SDA: I stood up to terror despite the threats!

Amra Babić, the first female mayor in the history of Visoko and the first mayor in Europe wearing a hijab, will run in the upcoming elections as an independent candidate. Last night, on a PINK TV program, she spoke about the turbulent times she has been through and the way forward.

She emphasized that she could not possibly talk about the political campaign as fair and just, as she has been exposed to threats, blackmail, and set-ups.

- This time I am running my campaign on my own, I am entirely responsible for it, and I want to run it in a correct and democratic manner. I think that political parties resort to all kinds of methods just to achieve their political goals. To me, this is not a matter of life or death, but a personal resistance and saying NO to the forces that attempt to scare us, to bribe us, to repress us and, after so many years since the end of the war in BiH, to frighten us with forces of darkness.

She says that, in the last four years of her term as mayor, she went through an ordeal. She worked for two years on her own, without any support from her then mother party, SDA, although the rumor was spread in Visoko and everyone knew.

- We fell out over some very important issues, our different ways of approaching some big problems, our different attitudes, approach to the opposition, the ways of running politics. Towards the end of this mandate, I was made aware that they would not nominate me as their candidate for the local elections for this position, Babić explains.

She remembers her close friends saying to her: 'Don't fight with SDA, SDA is forceful, they are powerful, SDA will destroy you, they will destroy your children, your family.'

- I told them I would just as well take the risk. I feel that I have a life mission to finish what I have started, to show that one can be different in politics, and that politics can take care of people instead of taking care of its personal interest.

She made a final decision about her campaign after an honest talk with her children, who agreed that she should not back down.

- I did have an alternative; SDA would give me some position, a job running some foundation and I would be well settled. I think that people perceive me as someone who stood up to terror, Babić claims.

She would like to motivate other women to enter politics and be active. The mayor also plans to finish a number of projects. She opines that there are no authentic leaders in BiH, neither on local nor on higher levels.

- There's this private ownership of political parties and that is what alienates me from any political option and pushes me to go independent. I don't see myself as a follower of any political leader right now.

Asked if an independent candidate is an agent of a political party, Babić informed that, by registering as an independent candidate, she violated the Statute of the party and thus lost her membership.

- From a political point of view, an independent candidate is independent of any political option but the one called – the will of the people. I want to be a people's delegate, to advocate for anything that is good for all people, not only for one group or one political option. I want to work for everybody.