Nikšić: In the SDP we must carry out a membership review and ensure party unity

At the extraordinary congress of the SDP, there are five candidates for the presidency of this party. All of them presented their work program for the next year before 560 party delegates today, writes the news agency Patria.

Nermin Nikšić, the candidate with the greatest chance of replacing Zlatko Lagumžija as the first man of the SDP, said that the fight for a strong SDP is also a fight for a strong BiH.

- The key tasks of the new leadership in the next nine months must be carrying out a membership review and ensuring the unity of the SDP, modernising the organisation and operation of the SDP, opening the party to new people, maximally strengthening field work, building and restoring trust within the membership, amending the Statute and establishing clear rules, introducing accountability and transparency of all bodies - said Nikšić.

He added that only together in this short period can they achieve the set goals.

- The SDP must not and cannot be a party of a few people, but a party of all its members. The SDP must be like one big family. A family, even when you are not satisfied with it, is not abandoned or left, but fought for to change and become as good as possible. I will fight for such a family - said Nikšić.

Svetozar Pudarić, also a candidate for president of the SDP, said that his plan is to work on reaching that level of social development that ensures a life for a healthy, happy and satisfied individual.

- Who will be elected will be decided by all of us, nearly six hundred delegates from all over BiH. Those who talk about orchestration underestimate our intelligence, and also call into question our personal integrity, reducing us to a voting machine - said Pudarić.

Candidate for the new president of the SDP, Mirko Pejanović, said that the third extraordinary congress of the SDP came not only because of the party's electoral collapse in the General Elections in BiH on October 12, but also because of the prolonged crisis of the SDP's development and functioning as a left-wing party.

- Why did I accept the candidacy for president of the SDP? Because I want to dedicate my knowledge, experience and energy in a one-year period to intra-party consolidation, democratisation of decision-making processes in the SDP, restoring trust in the party leadership and raising the trust of the democratic public in the programmatic goals and action of the SDP - said Pejanović.

Besima Borić, the only woman among the candidates for the leader of the SDP BiH, said that this is a moment when the situation in which the party and its members find themselves must be honestly and critically assessed.

- Such a moment for us is an opportunity for catharsis, for internal purification from which we will emerge transformed. For such a transformation, we need willpower and responsibility. I believe that despite all the difficulties and negative phenomena within the SDP, we can do it because I am convinced that we all want to be part of a modern and progressive political organisation that lives what it teaches - emphasised Borić, reports Patria's reporter.

Selim Beslagic, candidate for president of the SDP, said during his speech that he experienced disappointment because he realised that everyone suspects everyone else.

- I will not doubt and I believe in all of you. I am not afraid to look anyone in the eye. I have not given up on my principle. Those who led to this state should not be in the crisis leadership. I do not want to be a leader but one of us who will return social democracy to this country. I was terribly affected by the duplication of functions of political and executive power. Well, during the February protests, we were a party in illegality. We scheduled a session of the Main Committee several times, but did not hold it, which worried me. I will not criticise the past now, but we must learn lessons - said Beslagic.

He added that he calls on the prosecutor's offices in BiH to investigate everything for which the SDP is accused and prosecute, but not to judge the SDP, but what they find.