Main Board expels eight SDP members

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Main Board of the SDP has expelled several members of the party for participating in the formation of a new political movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Patria agency reports.

Expelled from the SDP are: Ivo Komšić, former SDP president Zlatko Lagumdžija, Miro Lazović, Emir Zlatar, Hakija Meholjić, Meliha Lekić.

Also expelled from the party are Zoran Mikulić and Rusmir Mesihović, advisors to the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and president of the DF, Željko Komšić.

They were expelled from the SDP with 67 votes in favor, 10 against, and two abstentions.

„SDP members who are on the initiative committee of the new movement are practically sitting on two chairs. I believe that no political party can allow this, and the Main Board will discuss this today,“ SDP BiH president Nermin Nikšić told reporters in Sarajevo today, before the start of the Main Board session of that party.

The Movement for Social Justice and Democracy (SPD) was founded in Sarajevo, among whose founders are some prominent SDP members. 

From the SPD, they stated that the Movement is not a new political entity in BiH but a platform for uniting the left in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The SDP, however, believes it is unacceptable for anyone from that party to participate in creating such an entity, while Nikšić said that SDP members did not consult with other party members when joining the initiative committee of that movement.

When a journalist noted before the start of the Main Board session that these are nonetheless prominent SDP members now facing expulsion, Nikšić said that such situations harm every political party, including the SDP.

„I am sorry for every SDP member, but there is no political party that can allow its members to sit in two political entities,“ Nikšić said.