Izetbegović "cleans" candidate lists of people close to Tihić!

A little more than a month remains until the deadline for submitting party candidate lists for the October elections, and within the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) fierce battles are underway for positions on the lists, the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP) has learned.

Namely, all political entities will submit their final candidate lists from July 2 to July 14, which will include the names of all party favorites, including candidates for the BiH Presidency member, Vice President of the RS, and list leaders for the BiH Parliament, FBiH Parliament, NSRS, and cantonal assemblies.

According to Patria agency's findings, although very little time remains, there is no agreement within the SDA even on the method of creating the lists, let alone on the names of candidates and their order on the lists.

After fully taking over the Personnel Commission, SDA Vice President Bakir Izetbegović, through his closest allies Asim Sarajlić, Amir Zukić, and Denis Zvizdić, is attempting to impose the adoption of criteria for candidate selection, which would then give him full control in creating the lists.

In this way, Izetbegović would completely remove from the lists all SDA members who are close to current President Sulejman Tihić or members of the SDA Presidency who recently objected to being outvoted at the top of the party.

As we unofficially learn, the intention of the current SDA leadership is to create the lists behind closed doors at the headquarters, completely excluding local party branches, which have so far played a significant role in candidate selection, ultimately bringing the party a large number of votes.

However, Izetbegović does not trust the leaders of party branches and wants to ensure, ahead of next year's congress when Tihić's successor will be elected, that his people occupy key positions on the candidate lists.

- Izetbegović's people regularly meet and agree on lists and positions on the lists, as if Tihić does not exist at all, nor is there any sense of agreements from the Convention. It is not excluded that there will be severe turbulence within the SDA if the lists are made only according to the wishes of those who now control the headquarters - stated a Patria source.