Will Arnel Isak be appointed to the leadership of the House of Representatives instead of Kenan Uzunović?

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

At the session of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of FBiH scheduled for May 28, in addition to the change at the head of the house, a change of another leadership member is planned. The public has long awaited the resignation of the acting chairperson Mirjana Marinković Lepić and the appointment of her successor. This will be her party colleague from Our Party, Dragan Mioković. This change has so far been blocked by HDZ cadres, as it suited them for the deputy chairperson Mladen Bošković to lead the sessions until the planned appointment of Marin Vukoja to the Constitutional Court of BiH.

In addition to the change at the head, the parliamentary majority also planned to replace Edina Gabela, the deputy chairperson of the House from the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina. As early as August 29, the Movement for Democratic Activity Club submitted an initiative to have Kenan Uzunović elected to the leadership of the House of Representatives instead of Gabela.



However, precisely because of HDZ's games and the blocking of the leadership change process, seven months have passed since then, and the legality of the PDA Club's initiative is in question. This is because the proposed Uzunović is no longer a member of the PDA Club. Elzina Pirić, Sandi Salkić, and Arnel Isak remained in this club.

We remind you that Uzunović left the PDA Club at the end of April, and now the validity of the club's proposal from seven months ago is questionable. It is also questionable, as it has not been the practice until now, to elect candidates to the leadership of the House of Representatives of FBiH who are not proposed by their club. Because it would be senseless for, say, Uzunović to be elected on the proposal of a club of which he is not a member, or any SDA representative proposed by the HDZ. It is therefore clear that Uzunović's election should not be considered at the session in nine days, as he is now an independent representative without a club.

On the other hand, it would be against practice and even unfair to elect Uzunović on behalf of a club that has three other members. This particularly applies to Arnel Isak, who remained in the PDA Club and has been a candidate for the leadership of the House of Representatives for some time.

Isak has a party behind him, is a member of one of the parliamentary clubs, and it is questionable how correct it is to even try to elect Uzunović based on a proposal that is not valid from a club to which he does not belong.

Therefore, although there is a proposal for Uzunović to be in the leadership of the House of Representatives, it is unknown whether he will remain the proposal. That is, the question is whether a new proposal will come from the PDA Club for Isak to be the candidate for the leadership.

It should not be forgotten that Isak was the primary proposal of the PDA Club for the deputy chairperson of the leadership of the House of Representatives of FBiH. Information about this was published on June 1, when the PDA Club requested that Isak enter the leadership instead of Gabela because, as they stated, "there are no Bosniaks in the leadership of the House of Representatives".

This proposal was preceded by a meeting between the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ram Isak (father of Arnel Isak), and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elmedin Konaković, who is also the leader of the parliamentary majority party People and Justice. Arnel Isak attended this meeting.

However, on August 28, Isak decided to withdraw his candidacy for the leadership of the House of Representatives. He then proposed his colleague from the PDA Club, Kenan Uzunović, but in the meantime, the situation has changed, and Isak and Uzunović are no longer wearing the same "club" jersey.

The fact that Uzunović publicly expressed dissatisfaction when leaving the PDA Club, citing dissatisfaction with the communication of the club president Elzina Pirić with the members as the reason, is also not negligible. Uzunović thus directly offended the club he was recently a part of, so it will be interesting to see if this club will stick to its proposal to appoint him to the leadership of the FBiH Parliament.

It should also not be forgotten that at the beginning of October last year, information emerged that Uzunović was preparing to leave the parliamentary majority, in which, along with Isak, he was a key player in the election of the imposed FBiH Government.

Therefore, the question arises whether Arnel Isak will be proposed as deputy chairperson of the House of Representatives of FBiH instead of Uzunović?