Seats and positions divide the "Trojka" coalition, SDP boycotts session, mayoral election process begins without a clear agreement

By Amra Vrabac

Although the process of electing the leadership of the City Council, the chairperson and two deputies, as well as the new mayor of Sarajevo and two deputies, was expected to be completed on May 27, the constitutive session was adjourned because the "Trojka" parties clearly had not reached a final agreement.

The continuation of that session was awaited for almost a month, and today there was a new fiasco. Not a single councilor from the SDP attended the session, although they have seven councilors and the largest club in the City Council. Of the seven councilors, the SDP has four Croats, two Serbs, and one Bosniak.

The problem arose precisely on the SDP-NIP line. The SDP was supposed to nominate two deputy chairpersons, with the chairperson being from Naša stranka, and NIP the mayor, while Naša stranka and SDP would nominate the deputies. Naša stranka has five councilors (two Croats, one Bosniak, one Serb, and Alen Girt from the others, who is supposed to be the chairperson of the City Council).

However, appetites grew within NIP, and they already demanded one position of deputy chairperson of the City Council at the session on May 27. NIP has only four councilors, all of whom are Bosniaks, so it is unclear on what basis they are setting conditions.

However, the SDP did not agree to this, so they set a counter-condition that Predrag Puharić should remain the mayor. And that's where the problem arose.

NIP has been campaigning for months that the new mayor will be Samir Avdić. However, according to Patria's information, there is no complete agreement within NIP for Avdić either.
Today's fiasco showed that the "Trojka" parties in Sarajevo are incapable of reaching an agreement even when they have a comfortable majority for decision-making, which is the case in the City Council where they have 16 out of 28 votes.

Today, Jasmin Ademović (NiP), the chairperson of the City Council in the previous term who is leading the sessions until the election of the new leadership, addressed the media. He pointed the finger at all the "Trojka" parties and those leading the processes in Sarajevo. Clearly, Ademović is not part of the negotiation process.

"I want to send a message to all leaders and people leading the processes to seriously consider the situation. I appeal once again to the negotiation teams and the cantonal committees of the "Trojka" parties, as well as to the leaders, to complete this task as soon as possible. Too much time has passed since we took office, and I don't think any position or anything can be more important than the functioning of the City of Sarajevo," said Ademović.

The "Trojka" parties are making a farce of the election of the mayor of Sarajevo for the second time. The first time they did it with Bogić Bogićević, who dignifiedly refused to participate further in that story, and then the SDP nominated Benjamin Karić for mayor overnight. After Karić was elected mayor of Novo Sarajevo municipality, SDP's Predrag Puharić was elected mayor in November 2024.

At this moment, it is unknown when the session might continue, and it is not excluded that everything could drag on until the beginning of autumn.