Konaković on Mostar: SDA ousted Baralija, HDZ gets the mayor, SDA the council speaker

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - After today's adjournment of the Mostar City Council session, where the election of the mayor was not completed but was halted after the first round of voting, reactions followed. In the first round, Irma Baralija (BH Bloc) received five votes, Zlatko Guzin (Coalition for Mostar) 11, and Mario Kordić (HDZ BiH) 14 votes.  

From Naša stranka, they state that at today's constitutive session of the Mostar City Council, it was confirmed that Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović have an agreement on the election of the mayor.

"In other words, they have an agreement on the continuity of joint rule over Mostar. Today in Mostar, both Izetbegović and Čović were present simultaneously, with Čović stating that if the SDA-HDZ agreement is respected, Mostar would get a mayor at this session. It is clear that all other negotiations were merely an alibi for a long-established agreement on the continuity of rule and the establishment of the SDA-HDZ vertical from the state, through the federal, down to the level of Mostar. By focusing on eliminating Irma Baralija - who independently fought for the holding of elections - Izetbegović, together with DF and SBB, delivered Mostar to Dragan Čović. We will not participate in a show directed by SDA and HDZ, and these parties will have to take responsibility for the outcome of today's voting themselves," they stated from Naša stranka.

The president of the party Narod i pravda, Elmedin Konaković, also reacted.

“Mostar in the hands of HDZ, part two. The speaker elected from HDZ, Irma Baralija was deliberately eliminated by SDA from the further race. In the second round, no one will have two-thirds support; in the third round, HDZ has a simple majority,” Konaković wrote on social media.

He added that SDA will attack SDP and Naša stranka after HDZ gets the mayor.

“They will be traitors, mercenaries, destroyers of BiH, while the agreement of old partners will be implemented. The culprit, of course, will be someone else. Just as they try to lie in SBK while forming a coalition with HDZ, just as they arranged protection for the wife at KCUS. Salem Marić returned his mandate in the Federation Parliament and returned to the Mostar City Council. To be a councilor? Hardly. Mayor HDZ, speaker SDA,” Konaković states.

It further states that SDA could have set new standards in politics today, supported Irma Baralija and put Čović in the place he deserves by the standards of Bosnians and Herzegovinians. But SDA again put Čović in the place that belongs to him by SDA's standards. Again, Čović is consulted on everything. Just as he is consulted in the House of Peoples, just as he is consulted with Dodik in the Council of Ministers. The subservient, cowardly politics of SDA and its so-called leader. Once again, who knows how many times. Here, let me be completely wrong, which I am not, of course, a question for Izetbegović. How can SDA get a mayor?,” reads Konaković's post.

It is emphasized that there are only two options for that - either HDZ delivers it to them or the Bh. Bloc and PMP vote for it.

“They can elect a mayor themselves just as we from Narod i pravda could, and we didn't even run in the elections in Mostar. Yet another brilliant chess game by a tired driver. So, is this why you stole so brutally in the elections? Misery and sorrow. Sadness. You will answer to this people, believe me!,” Konaković concluded.