List Holder of the Alliance for Stari Grad: People know I am not Milorad Dodik's relative, the dirty campaign is in vain

The only local party that has registered a list for the Municipal Council for the October elections in the Sarajevo Municipality of Stari Grad is the new political option, the Alliance for Stari Grad. The list has 36 names, reputable citizens from all local communities of Stari Grad, writes the Patria news agency.

The Alliance for Stari Grad has offered the citizens of this municipality a list that includes members of the veteran population, top athletes, craftsmen, representatives of associations, educators, and current municipal and city council members. The list holder is the current president of the Stari Grad Municipal Council, Vedran Dodik. 

- At the municipal level, there should be no ideological differences or divisions between the right and the left, because all citizens of a local community, a neighborhood, a building, have the same needs and interests.

The Alliance for Stari Grad no longer has party bodies and acts exclusively locally, giving a guarantee that it will consistently realize its goals, because it is accountable to no one but the citizens of the Municipality of Stari Grad, says Vedran Dodik in an interview with the Patria news agency.

PATRIA: You have been the president of the Stari Grad Municipal Council for four years. Summarize your work. Are you satisfied?

DODIK: I can say that I am successfully completing my term as president. The things I have done speak for themselves - the positive changes I have introduced into the work of the Municipal Council. Every session of the Municipal Council could be followed live stream on the Municipality's website - and the viewership was huge. I was at the service of all citizens of Stari Grad and always available to everyone.

During my four-year term, I received more than 1,800 citizens for consultations. Stari Grad is specific compared to other Sarajevo municipalities, because you have to be from the neighborhood, part of the neighborhood, and feel the pulse of the neighborhood. We all know each other in Stari Grad, we are all neighbors, relatives, friends, so what I said about successfully completing my term can be testified by all citizens from all local communities, regardless of which political option they support. Perhaps it is better not to talk about myself, but to ask the citizens.

PATRIA: You recently invited all candidates in the local elections to mark the anniversaries of the suffering of Sarajevans from September 2 to October 2, but to do so during the campaign without media presence.

DODIK: I think that during the pre-election period, this should be done in silence, without the media. Who needs to collect votes by paying tribute to the murdered and fallen? I don't need it, and I don't think others who have been nominated should either. For the past 11 years, as a municipal and city councilor, and especially in the last three years as the president of the Stari Grad Municipal Council, I have regularly attended the commemoration of the anniversaries of the suffering of Sarajevo citizens during the aggression against our city.

I visited martyrs' cemeteries, places where our fellow citizens were massacred or killed by snipers. The media were always present, and they should be, because the victims of the aggression and the truth about all of it must not be forgotten. However, I believe that during this pre-election period, all those who are candidates in the October elections should pay their respects in silence, without cameras and photojournalists, and not use the victims and the commemoration of their suffering for the purpose of pre-election promotion. 

That is why no media has noticed me, and they will not be able to record my presence at such places during the pre-election period. I hereby invite other candidates, regardless of what and for whom they are running, to do the same.

PATRIA: You have suddenly become the target of political opponents, and dirty propaganda is being waged against you because of your surname. Stories are even being spread among citizens that you are Milorad Dodik's first cousin.

DODIK: To those individuals who base their dirty campaign by attacking someone's name or, in my case, surname, and curse my Vlach mother, whose mother is Aiša, and my father, who is coincidentally Jasmin, son of Sejfo, grandson of Sulejman Dodik, I advise them to first educate themselves a little about the origin of my surname.

Those who are engaged in this know everything about me personally very well, both who I am and whose I am, especially those who prayed countless prayers with me for Ibrahim ef. Husić in Bistrik. In the absence of arguments, they resort to lies to scare the uninformed people with Dodik in Stari Grad. To their misfortune, and to my joy, the people are not ignorant, the people know what they are doing and that I am not Milorad Dodik's relative.

PATRIA: The Deputy Mayor of Sarajevo, Abdulah Skaka, announces the upcoming construction of the Trebević cable car. The first gondola has even been installed in front of the City Hall. When can we expect to ride the cable car? 

DODIK: The gondola installed in front of the City Hall is just part of the pre-election campaign, deceiving citizens that something is being done to restore the cable car. We have gondolas that have been in the EUFOR base for years, and this one was just placed there as part of the pre-election folklore. Funds for restoration or construction have been approved, but conditionally. If and when the City Administration provides the Main Project and the building permit for the cable car, which they don't have, then the funds will be paid. The cable car might be restored someday only if the Municipality of Stari Grad takes over the project. Everything else is an election lie.

Not even a nail has been hammered yet - they didn't even demolish it, but the aggressors did from 1992-1995. The City Administration only took the rubble to the dump. Nothing more. But they duly approached the Municipality of Stari Grad to donate 500,000 KM. If the Municipal Council had refused, they would have accused the Municipality of being against the construction of the cable car.