No agreement on the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, Viteškić schedules session for January 29?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – After Mirza Čelik tried today to schedule a Collegium of the Assembly, which was not attended by Chairperson Danijela Kristić, nor Vibor Handžić, nor Elmedin Konaković, he stated that it is only a question of who will preside over the 18th and 19th sessions of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton.

The SDA club with SBB and DF made an offer to NiP, Our Party, SDP BiH and NBL that the sessions be chaired by Smiljana Viteškić (SDA) as the oldest representative in order to unblock the work of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton. Two sessions were interrupted due to lack of quorum because representatives of the new majority (SDA, SBB, DF, BOSS) did not attend the sessions; they had elected Čelik as Chairman of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton at the session on December 28, 2019.

The day before, the leadership of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, Danijela Kristić, Elmedin Konaković and Vibor Handžić, elected Kristić as Chairperson, while Viteškić was not at the Collegium. The decision on Kristić's election was published in the Official Gazette of the Sarajevo Canton. The new assembly majority does not recognize Kristić, demanding that Čelik preside over the sessions, and according to the new offer, Viteškić.

On the other hand, although the session's agenda was supposed to include a decision on the election of Mirza Čelik to the leadership of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, and setting a date for the Assembly session to vote on no confidence in the Government of the Sarajevo Canton, the representatives of the new majority did not attend that session. An attempt to reach an agreement among representatives on adopting a decision on temporary financing of the Sarajevo Canton for the first three months of 2020 also failed because the Budget was not adopted.

Time is running out, and the expectation that the OHR will impose a solution in this case is unlikely. Unions are already announcing strikes if January salaries are jeopardized, and all social benefits and other compensations related to the Budget of the Sarajevo Canton are in question.

Čelik stated today that, if an agreement is not reached soon, Viteškić will schedule a session for January 29. The deadline for adopting the decision on temporary financing is January 31.