Bećirović announced, Lagumdžija confirmed: President will be elected at a staged extraordinary Congress

On election night, my statement to the media: "my priority goal is to bring the ship in troubled waters to a safe harbor". After last night's session of the SDP BiH Main Board, I am more than sure that we are close to the goal, wrote Zlatko Lagumdžija, president of SDP, on his Facebook profile, reports the BiH news agency Patria. 

- Last night's session clearly showed that SDP BiH has enough will and strength to enter the process of revitalization and that we have recognized possible democratic processes that are necessary to improve the work within the party and to open up more to the outside.

After two long, substantive and successful sessions of the presidency and during the twelve-hour session of the SDP BiH Main Board, we heard many critical but also self-critical tones, and most importantly, besides criticism, a kind of roadmap with proposals on how to solve the problems ahead of us was clearly presented. I am truly pleased with the atmosphere that largely prevailed, that united we can change everything.

I am pleased that on December 6th I will hand over the party leadership to a new president who will have enough time to prepare the regular Congress with all democratic processes that will return SDP BiH to where it belongs. I believe in the best choice of the congress, Lagumdžija said. 

Read between the lines, he admitted that SDP was closed to the outside, and that thanks to his autocratic way of ruling this once social democratic party, SDP turned into DJL and a group of like-minded people. 

However, although Lagumdžija wrote that he is pleased with both criticism and self-criticism, and that he will hand over the party leadership to a new president on December 6th, it is impossible not to comment on Denis Bećirović's statement last night, who, submitting his resignation, said that the "extraordinary Congress will be staged".

Therefore, it is not surprising that Lagumdžija is pleased with the handover of the presidential baton, because until December 6th, he has time to lobby enough delegates for his successor who will actually be his subordinate. 

However, let's also leave open the possibility that common sense prevails among a large part of the SDP officials and members, and that they truly elect a president who will return this party to what it had and what it was when a social democrat like the late Nijaz Duraković sat in its ranks.