What the SDP Statute Says: If Lagumdžija Does Not Call an Extraordinary Congress, Other Bodies Will Do So

The SDP Presidency session is being held in Sarajevo today, reports the Patria agency. Recall, after on Thursday, Nermin Nikšić and Damir Hadžić, the SDP Secretary General and SDP Vice President, resigned from all party positions, other prominent SDP members also announced their resignations. Among others, these are Lidija Korać, SDP Vice President, Damir Mašić who called on all other Presidency members to resign, Saša Magazinović, and the reason is the electoral collapse of the SDP in the held general elections.

Many are demanding an extraordinary congress, but so far only the Tuzla SDP Committee has submitted a request to Zlatko Lagumdžija to hold the congress. Otherwise, the extraordinary congress of the SDP BiH is convened by the President of the SDP BiH, says the SDP statute, and the SDP President is obliged to convene an Extraordinary Congress of the SDP BiH also when requested by at least one-fifth of the municipal committees of the SDP BiH, out of the total number of municipal committees of the SDP BiH from at least three different cantonal organizations of the SDP BiH.

If the President of the SDP BiH does not act upon the requests from paragraphs one and four of this article within one month of receiving the request, the Congress of the SDP BiH may be convened by the bodies that requested it. The President of the SDP BiH may convene an Extraordinary Congress of the SDP BiH if he assesses that the Main Board of the SDP BiH or the Presidency of the SDP BiH are violating the Program and Statute of the SDP BiH with their decisions – states the statute.

Otherwise, the request of the SDP Committee from Tuzla also includes a request for amending the Party Statute in the sense that all members elect the top leader of the SDP.

For now, the SDP President is elected by the SDP Congress.

Candidates for the President of the SDP BiH are proposed by the Main Board of the SDP BiH or at least one-fifth of the delegates of the SDP BiH Congress.  The candidate who receives a majority of the votes of the present Congress delegates is elected President of the SDP BiH. If no candidate receives the required majority, the election is repeated between the two candidates who received the most votes. The candidate who receives more votes in the second round of voting is elected – as specified by the Statute.

The turbulent spirits in the SDP could get an epilogue at today's session and the Main Board session planned for Saturday, where the date of the extraordinary congress will also be decided. It is at the congress that the removal of SDP President Zlatko Lagumdžija is expected, whom the membership considers the main culprit for the electoral failure, writes Patria.