Thank you Efendić, but the funds were provided by "Prvi mart", not Suljagić

The coalition of civil society organizations "Prvi mart" reacted to the pre-election statement of the SDA mayor of Sarajevo's Novi Grad municipality, Semir Efendić, who stated at a party rally in Dom Mladih, "we gave 50,000 KM to Suljagić for the Prvi mart coalition, he said he has nothing to do with Komšić and lied to us".

Patria transmits the reaction in its entirety:

"The coalition of civil society organizations "Prvi mart" received financial resources from the budget of the mayor and the municipality of Novi Grad, Semir Efendić. The amount, slightly over 45,000 KM, was spent during "Prvi mart's" work on informing returnees about the rights they are entitled to under the Law on Rights of Persons Returning to Their Pre-War Residence from the Canton of Sarajevo to the territory of the Republika Srpska entity, and on training a network of activists who worked on registering displaced persons in the country and diaspora (most of the funds were spent on travel expenses and compensation for persons who worked on registration).

A report on the costs of operations has been submitted, down to the last receipt, and we sincerely thank Mayor Efendić for the support he provided. The Municipality of Novi Grad is one of the rare examples of support for the initiative to register returnees in the RS entity, and without this support, the "Prvi mart" coalition would not have survived until today. We want to emphasize that Mayor Efendić allocated money from public funds, and in that regard, the procedure was carried out transparently and in accordance with regulations.

We believe that it is not in line with the policy of the Party of Democratic Action for Efendić to claim 'that he gave Suljagić 50,000 KM', since he did not give his personal funds hand-to-hand to another person, but rather budget funds were invested in a genuine state project. The fact that the Party of Democratic Action participates in the "Domovina" coalition, which is still held together by "Prvi mart", a group of organizations without which there would be no joint appearance in the RS, confirms this."