Zalihić: SDP in Mostar has a three times worse result compared to General and last Local Elections, someone must take responsibility

(Patria) - SDP achieved a three times weaker result compared to the General and last Local Elections in 2020. We will have to see where the reasons and blame lie, and someone will have to take responsibility for such a weak result. I think we have to start with ourselves to heal the party before the next General Elections, said Arman Zalihić, former president of SDP GO SDP Mostar, who resigned six months ago.

Zalihić told the show Istraga sedmice that HDZ is dominant in the elections and achieved a better result than they expected.

"In Mostar, it is important that no national party has a dominant majority, and this time it happened that HDZ has 18 votes and will have the mayor. We, as SDP, should have articulated certain problems and worked on them. We have an unconstitutional Statute of the City of Mostar. I think SDP, as a civic party, should have focused on these local issues," said Zalihić.

Zoran Mikulić, head of DF in Mostar, said that they offered cooperation to the 'trojka' before the elections so that votes would not be wasted.

"We offered a solution where everyone could take one mandate. There was no understanding from the 'trojka'. We did not run with our own list in Jugozapad, but scattered votes led to no party winning a mandate," said Mikulić.

The Jugozapad electoral unit provides seven city councilors.

Zalihić said that there were three key reasons why HDZ did not get 18 mandates. He pointed out that voter mobilization, primarily from the diaspora, was poorly executed.

"We had support in the last elections, now it is lacking. We did not communicate the campaign well to get people to the polls. I think SDP and DF should have sat down and we should have had two lists. SDP should not have given up on the list leader in Jugozapad or in Zapad," he said.

When asked by Avdo Avdić about his resignation, Zalihić said that with the help of some members of the SDP Presidency, a so-called 'parallel group' was lobbied into the GO SDP Mostar, which he understood as a lack of trust in the organization.

"That is why I resigned, and it is not a tragedy. We will have to conduct an analysis. The SDP Statute states that if an organization achieves a 50 percent weaker result compared to the previous electoral cycle, it is obliged to resign. I expect responsible people to take action. That organization accounts for 53 percent of SDP's entire result. By the next elections, I expect us to be a consolidated party as SDP deserves," said Zalihić.

"HDZ has shown that it is doing well in Mostar. We need to put some political interests on paper and determine a minimum below which we will not go," said Zalihić.

Haris Šabanović from SDA HNK said that the story about the mayor is not over and that there is a possibility that HDZ will be left without a mayor.