Former SDP President Traded with SDA: Mayor Position Promised to Igor Kamočaji for Candidacy

Zlatko Lagumdžija and Bakir Izetbegović have been close friends for years, and meetings and lunches have intensified particularly during election periods. Deals and bargains are being struck, and Lagumdžija, although no longer the president of SDP BiH (he led the party for 17 years), still has a strong influence on a faction within the party, especially in Sarajevo Canton, writes the Patria news agency.

Political observers were surprised when Igor Kamočaji ran for the position of mayor of Centar Municipality, and about ten days ago, he resigned from the position of director of the JU Employment Service of Sarajevo Canton.

Kamočaji, who was also the deputy mayor of the City of Sarajevo and an extremely successful municipal councilor in the Centar Municipal Council, is considered an experienced and astute politician despite his youth.

Why would he resign and leave a secure director's position to run for mayor, where no one gives him any chance of winning, considering there are as many as 10 candidates in Centar Municipality, both from parties and independent.

Lagumdžija, by all accounts, is the one who agreed with SDA for Kamočaji to run (although there were negotiations for the left to field a joint candidate so as not to split votes, but the former SDP leader disrupted those plans), and to draw away a certain number of votes, thereby easing the path to the mayoral position for the SDA-SBB candidate.

After almost two decades, Centar Municipality, which has the largest budget (over 40 million KM), will likely not have a mayor from SDP BiH due to political combinations and trades.

The question is, what position was promised to Igor Kamočaji? Did Lagumdžija trade the position of mayor of the City of Sarajevo for him, or rather for his personal interests?