USK on the verge of complete financial blockade, Assembly without quorum to adopt budget

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - An extraordinary session of the Una-Sana Canton (USK) Assembly scheduled for today was not held due to a lack of quorum, meaning 15 deputies were either justifiably or unjustifiably absent. One deputy has been absent for some time for justified reasons, while this time members of the deputy clubs of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Our Party, the Movement for a Modern and Active Krajina (PoMAK), and the Labour Party did not show up.

This continued the political crisis and the non-functioning of the Cantonal Assembly, given that the session was supposed to discuss and decide on the Decision on Temporary Financing of the Una-Sana Canton and the Cantonal Health Insurance Fund.

This outcome followed the failure to support the review of the proposed budget under an urgent procedure and the Financial Plan and Program of the USK Health Insurance Fund at last week's regular session.

- All deputies were informed in a timely manner about the date of the extraordinary session, however, only three out of 14 announced and previously justified their absence. These are Edina Abdić Pleho and Rasim Kantarević from the Labour Party, and Zikrija Duraković from PoMAK. So far, decisions on temporary financing have been adopted unanimously, but this time it is quite clear that the goal is a complete financial blockade of our canton. This is probably the case because we are in an election year, but only those who did not show up today can give you the real answer - stated the Speaker of the USK Assembly Razim Halkić (SDP).

Prime Minister Mustafa Ružnić reiterated that the mandates of all government members are available if someone else can legally form a government.

 - I repeat myself, but our mandates are truly available. Everyone knows how and in what way this is done, and I don't see a problem there. On the other hand, the problem is the deliberate creation of a crisis in the institutions and a complete financial blockade, because of which more than 10,000 budget users are already suffering, and as time goes on, the situation will become more complex. We are trying to talk to all the deputies and find at least a temporary solution, however, this is the response we received - these are the words of Cantonal Prime Minister Ružnić.

Speaker Halkić announced the continuation of political negotiations and talks, as well as the likely convening of a new urgent session already this week.