Uzunović: SDA regrets the position of mayor, and Zenica is a more beautiful city without them

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - As a person born in Zenica in 1993 and who has been a resident of Zenica all my life, I cannot help but comment on the statement of the Party of Democratic Action Zenica under the title "The catastrophic performance of the Mayor of Zenica Fuad Kasumović: Out of a total of 37 promises, not a single one has been fully realized", where I, Kenan Uzunović, have been personally labeled as a person working "on Kasumović's propaganda as his fake profile", thereby attempting to put a "target" on my back and the backs of other individuals mentioned in the statement ahead of the election campaign, begins a letter to the media by Kenan Uzunović, President of the Commission for Youth of ZDK and member of the professional staff of the BiH rugby national team.

We are transmitting the letter in its entirety:

"First, I will address what I know by the nature of my work, which is sports. I partially agree with the statement that funds for sports and culture are allocated through a commission. For many, before Fuad Kasumović became the mayor of Zenica, "transparency" was a hypothetical concept, and the allocation of funds for sports was carried out in such a way that funds were allocated to all sports clubs only if the club was headed by an SDA subordinate and cadre.

Upon reviewing the club statuses in 2016, the club coffers of all sports collectives were found to be depleted, and it is widely known that the SDA and its cadres are responsible for such a situation.

Gentlemen, sport is not resolved by buying titles and results; sport is resolved systematically, by creating conditions for development from the youngest selections, which all clubs have been provided with, from free training and matches on the fields of the City Arena and Kamberović Field, which you certainly could not boast of.

I am not surprised that the Zenica SDA is mistaken; I am surprised that they still refuse to see the problems they have caused for the city. But that is not my personal problem; it is strictly their problem, which I am sure the citizens of Zenica will recognize and punish in the elections on November 15, just as they did once before in 2016.

And now I will address the other slanders from the statement, because I feel socially responsible as someone who stood by the words of the Mayor of Zenica back in 2016. I believe you have never gotten over losing the position of Mayor of Zenica, just as you have not gotten over the abolition of funding for political parties from the budget of the City of Zenica, given that you used to withdraw large sums of money from the budget that way, and now you are reduced to 15 KM for all parliamentary groups annually.

Citizens of Zenica are still wondering why, as a party that has held the position of Prime Minister in the Zenica-Doboj Canton twice, you challenged the constitutionality of decisions on utility taxes, thereby preventing the very "taxation" you cite as an unfulfilled promise. I know that what hurts you most as a party is the fact that you don't have the opportunity to appoint subordinates to director positions in Public Enterprises, to supervisory boards, as well as that you can place your subordinates in those same enterprises which you, over the years, have overloaded with employees who were not workers, and who are now forced to work to earn a salary, which must be the practice!

It also hurts that Zenica has had New Year's Eve celebrations in the open since 2016, as well as that the city is able to host all visitors of the "Summer Fest", which every resident of Zenica is proud of. The city has never been richer in children's and sports playgrounds, because the citizens of Zenica do not deserve to wait for donations from various foreign organizations, but rather the City Administration, led by the mayor, finances the construction of all playgrounds.

I am pleased with the fact that I can state regarding road infrastructure, which is that every village in the Babinski and Nemilski basins is connected by asphalt, for which all residents are immensely grateful to the City Administration led by the mayor, and you will see this on November 15. I would accept any criticism regarding the employment of all the people mentioned in the statement, but only from the moment when you, as a party that has set Zenica back with debts for cantonal projects and various "deals", state how many subordinates you have employed in the City Administration,

Public Enterprises, both city and cantonal, the Cantonal Hospital, and all the ministries you managed in previous years. I am sorry to have to say it this way, many have left this city while you were employing even the fifth generation of your family. Many of my fellow citizens and I will live much more beautifully in a city where the heating issue has been resolved thanks to cooperation with the company ArcelorMittal, because we will no longer freeze in winter due to outdated boilers. I am sure it will be more pleasant for me to walk through the renovated Old Bazaar when the conditions are met for its renovation, and that is when decisions that will enable it can be made without the SDA, because you have repeatedly rejected regulatory plans that would make Zenica more beautiful, and even the "opening" of the Old Bazaar to traffic.

Citizens will recognize and punish all of the above for which you are responsible in the elections on November 15, and then perhaps you will recognize all your mistakes and obstructions that you have made in these four years, thinking that you could boast about them in the election campaign. And according to both world and religious rules, it is not honorable to build one's success on lies.

I hope that the SDA will approach the campaign more seriously and have evidence for its claims, rather than superficial statements and the imagination of a narrow interest group," Uzunović stated.