Delić: Parties don't hold me in their pocket, our capital project will be the human being

(Patria) - Adnan Delić, at the proposal of People and Justice, with the support of Our Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Independent Bosnian-Herzegovinian List, will compete for the position of mayor of Novi Grad in the upcoming local elections in November. His candidacy came as a surprise to many. Primarily because he has not been involved in politics specifically, but comes from the real sector.

"Yes, I am the candidate of the 'Četvorka' coalition for the mayor of Novi Grad. I have never been part of politics before and, like many today, I only followed what was happening. When they offered me the candidacy, I had a stable life in every sense. I spent my entire working life in the real sector, where I was involved in organizing and managing employees. My main task was always how to meet customer demands and achieve profitability. That is the job I did to the best of my ability. I got the opportunity to be a candidate for mayor, and I am glad that I look at all of this as an ordinary person, but also as someone who understands the processes and how to make the work of the municipality and municipal bodies more efficient and better. So, in every sense, my candidacy as someone whom parties do not hold in their pocket, and where my main focus is on the problems of the residents of Novi Grad Municipality, is an absolute advantage."

What are your plans as a potential future mayor? There are many problems in Novi Grad Municipality for which your fellow citizens do not have adequate solutions. What would you do about it?

Yes, there are many problems that our fellow citizens have, and they do not find adequate solutions for them, nor does our government offer them solutions. I prefer working in the field and talking to people, because without that, we cannot know where it hurts them. I have visited many local communities in our municipality and talked to the residents about the problems they have. My goal, as the mayor of Novi Grad Municipality, is to listen to the citizens, hear their problems, and find solutions for them. By working together, through dialogue, we can achieve a lot and solve problems that the government has been neglecting for years. And I can tell you right now that I have a lot of problems/challenges that affect ordinary citizens daily and in different local communities. Our capital project will be the human being, the citizen of Novi Grad, and how we will make life easier and more beautiful in our municipality, and I will not talk about "capital" projects that have been mentioned for the last 8 years and which have mostly not been realized.

You are the youngest candidate for mayor in the upcoming elections. The issue of youth is constantly presented as crucial for the survival of the country. How do you see that?

Our political system is such that mostly older people are involved in politics. Younger people do not want to or do not have the courage to get involved in the electoral process. I sincerely hope that this practice will change. We can set things up very simply, but if young people do not take action to realize their goals and desires, nothing will change. Their fate will be decided by the same people who have brought us to this state where over 70,000 people have left our country. This will bring us to the brink of existence if we continue like this. We will not allow that! Young people are the ones who can change things in this country for the better. We must wake up so that we can all make life in this country more beautiful together. Unfortunately, in Novi Grad Municipality, there is no youth center, young people do not get opportunities for employment, but the same people and interests are always involved. And that is the key reason for my candidacy.

What will be the primary focus for you and your program if you gain the citizens' support for the mayoral position?

The primary goal would be what the six-party coalition government has already done at the cantonal level, and that is to emphasize the fight against corruption, and to conduct processes and budget distribution transparently. The moment citizens realize that it is their money being spent, it will be much simpler. We will establish a service that will be open to the public at all times and digitally, so that all citizens can monitor the spending of municipal funds.

What I also want to implement is digitalization. The fact is that we are far behind the rest of the world, and even the region, in this segment. While others resolve requests with a single "click," we still ask for more paper. Simply put, we will reduce the time spent waiting in lines and make things easier and more efficient.

The issue of traffic in the settlement is also important. The goal is not to build parking lots where you will destroy parks for families and children, but to work smartly. Therefore, we will work on projects where underground parking spaces will be built, and above them, there will be parks with smart technologies, and we will try to include renewable energy sources like solar panels to create a self-generating and healthy eco-space.

In cooperation with higher levels of government and the Public Utility Company Vodovod i kanalizacija, we will intensively work on finding the highest quality, long-term solutions for water supply and the sewage network in parts of our municipality that have been living without these elementary life needs for many years.

What is also a great concern is employment. It is not just about creating jobs, but about the quality of positions and the standards by which we live. Novi Grad Municipality has the lowest average salary, and we want to equalize it with other municipalities by attracting concrete investments in the IT sector and creating an IT hub, as well as educating high-quality, well-paid staff. The key issue here is the retraining of people on the unemployment register, and the creation of new staff for our future through scholarships for our students, as well as the improvement of school and preschool institutions, which I consider a very important segment. You see, we are the municipality with the lowest average salary and the highest number of unskilled workers.