Inter-party waves: Was Poplašen 'exchanged' for Osmica, the new OSA director?

The appointment of Chetnik duke Nikola Poplašen to the BiH Agency for Higher Education Board, allegedly, is part of a 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours' deal between coalition partners SDA and SDS, writes the Patria news agency. 

The vote at the session of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, which caused a public uproar, was planned down to the last detail, but party leaders evidently did not expect it to stir up the public.  

A Patria source from the top of the SDA says that SDS allegedly agreed for Poplašen that its people in the BiH Council of Ministers and the Joint Commission for Oversight of the OSA would support the SDA's proposal.

More precisely, the proposal of the party's president Bakir Izetbegović that the new director be appointed his trusted man and wartime companion of the late Alija Izetbegović, and the current head of the Department for Secret Surveillance in the OSA, Osman Mehmedagić Osmica.

The Joint Commission includes chairman Nikola Špirić, first deputy Bariša Čolak, second deputy Safet Softić, and members Sadik Ahmetović, Darko Babalj, Damir Bećirović, Predrag Kožul, Đorđo Krčmar, Mirsad Mešić, Sredoje Nović, Fahrudin Radončić and Ljilja Zovko.

This commission should start the procedure for appointing the new OSA director on Monday.

However, given the public uproar over Poplašen's appointment in the House of Peoples, which now needs to be confirmed by the BiH House of Representatives, it is questionable whether SDA and DF representatives, whose fellow delegates voted for the Chetnik duke, will press the button and confirm their decision. 

If Poplašen was indeed exchanged for Osmica, then if the duke 'falls', the appointment of Izetbegović's man to head the OSA will also be questionable.