SDP Mostar: We Will Do Everything to Prevent Manipulation of Citizens by HDZ BiH

All those who had even a little optimism that a solution for Mostar would be found and local elections held in 2016, after yesterday's statements by Dragan Čović, the president of HDZ BiH, have the right to be seriously concerned, announced the City Committee of SDP Mostar, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

- Dragan Čović, apparently the master of the political scene in the Federation of BiH, skillfully manipulating his partners in government and the citizens of FBiH, as he puts it, „in a relaxed atmosphere“ once again places Mostar in the context of global solutions and political bargaining. In all of this, the claim that BiH will get amendments to the Election Law by the end of the year, and that HDZ BiH will support the possibility that local elections not be held in 2016, and that this time be used for the implementation of reform activities, is contradictory. Finding justification in the idea that it would be economically more profitable to combine local and general elections, it is clear that HDZ BiH needs time to arrange all its political and economic ambitions, and in this it has the full support of SDA and SBB, so it will not be difficult for them.

The City Committee of SDP BiH Mostar strongly opposes these views and we will use all legal and political means to prevent HDZ BiH and their like-minded individuals from manipulating citizens and their basic rights due to their narrow interests.

On this occasion, we want to emphasize once again that Mostar is a city with accumulated problems, a city without a vision and development strategy, a city from which people are leaving. In this and such a Mostar, only the parties in power feel good. On several occasions so far, we have pointed out that Mostar has no time to wait and that it is necessary to implement the Decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH regarding the City of Mostar, and create preconditions for holding elections at the same time as in other municipalities in BiH.

The City Committee of SDP BiH Mostar, acting through the initiative of nine opposition parties, presented the problems of Mostar at a joint meeting with the High Representative for BiH, Valentin Inzko. However, the Office of the OHR remained at the level of declarative support for efforts to find a solution, with the position that the OHR and the High Representative will not use the Bonn powers this time and impose new solutions.

Summarizing the above, all that remains for us is to hope for a sudden enlightenment of SDA and HDZ, which, knowing these two parties, would be tantamount to a miracle, in which no one believes anymore.