Canton Sarajevo Assembly dismisses Minister Adna Mesihović

(Patria) - The Canton Sarajevo Assembly at today's session dismissed Minister of Science, Higher Education and Youth Adna Mesihović with 20 votes in favor.

Mesihović will take up the mandate of a deputy in the Canton Sarajevo Assembly instead of Damir Marjanović, who left the Assembly. Mesihović was arrested in April this year on suspicion of abuse of office related to illegal employment in the Ministry of Higher Education. She spent two months in custody, and then, due to restrictive measures, the Prime Minister of Canton Sarajevo requested her suspension. The Central Election Commission awarded Mesihović the mandate of a deputy, which she decided to accept, after which she resigned from the position of minister.

Prime Minister Nihad Uk provided introductory remarks about the candidate for the new minister, Dušanka Bošković. She is a full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Sarajevo and Vice-Rector for Quality of the University of Sarajevo during the mandate of Rector Tarik Zaimović.

Deputy Muamer Bandić stated that the procedure prescribed by the Rules of Procedure was not followed, as the minister should have been dismissed first, and then the procedure for appointing the missing minister should have been initiated.

"We welcome the biography of the proposed minister, but the procedure should be returned to the beginning. Only now have we given legitimacy to the Prime Minister of Canton Sarajevo to initiate the procedure. The Law on the Government of Canton Sarajevo precisely indicates that there is no possibility of initiating the procedure until a dismissal has been made beforehand," Bandić said.

Chairman of the Canton Sarajevo Assembly Elvedin Okerić said that nowhere does it state that a new minister cannot be dismissed and appointed at the same session.