ELECTIONS AHEAD Is this trio the best gift for the SDA

By: Amra Vrabac

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Today marks one year since the appointment of the new Government of the Sarajevo Canton, led by seven ministers from the People and Justice party of Elmedin Konaković. The SDP BiH has three seats, while Our Party holds the premiership and one ministerial position, and the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Aleksandra Nikolić, is a non-partisan figure but received support from these parties to enter the Government of the Sarajevo Canton.

The parliamentary majority of the trio initially had 18 votes, then 19, while that number varies from session to session and from agenda item to agenda item. On several occasions, the SBB saved the parliamentary majority. However, with the removal of SBB officials, the last in a series being the director of the Skenderija Center, Amer Kapo, the party of Fahrudin Radončić will no longer be a helper to the current Government of the Sarajevo Canton. At least not without a good reason. The year of this government's work also saw the resignations of two ministers, those of Justice and Administration and Higher Education.

Relations between these three parties are not exactly a reflection of love and honesty, so majorities are being shaken in municipal councils, and complaints are being raised about the (non)work of mayors they jointly supported in the 2020 election campaign. Even then, it was considered that the SDP had ceded the levers to People and Justice and Our Party, so for only one municipality (Trnovo) they put forward a candidate who did not win. Most complaints relate to the municipalities of Novo Sarajevo and Centar.

The election of the Mayor of Sarajevo ended in a fiasco orchestrated by the trio themselves, and the mayoral candidate Bogić Bogićević subsequently refused to be part of that political mud any longer. Benjamina Karić was quickly elected mayor on the proposal of the SDP.

Nor is the situation in the City Council, where the majority held by the trio is also questionable, a pleasant atmosphere. This was shown in the case of the memorial unveiled in November for all victims killed at Kazani.

That something is not right with the trio in the Government of the Sarajevo Canton was also shown by the trip to Dubai for EXPO 2020, for which the Government of the Sarajevo Canton will spend 4 million KM. Minister Adnan Šteta and Mayor Karić canceled the trip to Dubai at the last minute.

The presidents of these parties do not comment on the disputes that are evident among party members, who often 'war' with press releases. Presumably, it all fits into the well-known cliché: 'We don't agree on everything, but the coalition is strong.'

Given that it is an election year, it is increasingly being heard that such a trio is the best gift for the SDA, which has played a good role as the opposition over the past year, criticizing both minor and major mistakes of the trio with a lot of noise.

The balance of power in the Government of the Sarajevo Canton nevertheless shows who 'leads the processes', and one of the key decisions to repeal the decision on wind corridors was made by overriding votes, i.e., exclusively with the votes of the seven ministers from NIP. Such a relationship shows that the three partners are not equal, no matter how much they try to portray their relations as harmonious and strong.

There have also been disagreements over some other decisions, but things are still being swept under the rug.

Although they had a historic opportunity to change things for the better in the Sarajevo Canton, the trio continued along well-trodden paths of political replacements and appointments of their own cadres, some competent, some completely without appropriate qualifications, so they quickly changed and replaced their own cadres.

At the insistence of NIP, the trio will also be remembered for forming the Helicopter Unit of the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and purchasing a helicopter (they claim they will not stop at one), for which millions of marks have been planned during one of the biggest crises since the war.

The real test for the trio lies ahead in the coming months, when the leaders of these parties should decide on a joint candidate for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far, they have not succeeded, and it is increasingly likely that the trio will enter the elections more divided than they are now. Appetites are big, but positions are few.