VIDEO Will Mostar Get a New Mayor

(Patria) - After Mostar did not get a new mayor at the constitutive session on Friday, the session of the Mostar City Council continued today, where the name of the mayor is expected to be known

The new convocation of the Mostar City Council gathered for its first session on Friday, February 5, after local elections were held in Mostar for the first time in 12 years. The leadership of the City Council was elected at the session, but not the new mayor.

The first round of elections for mayor was held on Friday, in which a total of 35 councilors voted among three candidates, Irma Baralija (BH bloc), Zlatko Guzin (Coalition for Mostar), and Mario Kordić (HDZ BiH).

Kordić received 14 votes, Guzin won 11, while Baralija received five votes, thus being eliminated from the race for the position of mayor. The session was eventually adjourned due to a lack of quorum, after the councilors of the Coalition for Mostar left.

Meanwhile, the Office of the High Representative in BiH issued a statement stating that the first round of elections for the Mayor of Mostar should be repeated.

In a letter sent by High Representative Valentin Inzko to the City Council and councilors of the City of Mostar, it is emphasized that the election procedure must be secret, not public as was done last week. In this regard, Inzko requested that the entire procedure be repeated, because, as he underlined, the vote in the first round was not conducted in accordance with the Statute of the City of Mostar.