Zvizdić's Double Game: Premier Appointment Opens Factional Struggle in Sarajevo SDA

Backroom games within the Cantonal Board of SDA Sarajevo regarding the appointment of a mandate-holder for the formation of the new Government of the largest canton continue over the weekend, writes the Patria news agency.

Although at first, the favorite of the President of the Cantonal Board, Denis Zvizdić, was the young and educated Executive Director of the FBiH Motorways Public Company, Jasmin Bučo, and other factions within the Board favored Dino Konaković, in the end it turned out that Zvizdić was playing a double game.

Suddenly, Muharem Šabić, the technical director of the defunct company "BH Airlines," who had been written off by the Cantonal Board's Personnel Commission, is back in the mix.

Šabić is the favorite of the President of the Novi Grad Municipal Board, Huse Ćesir.

However, as it now appears, he is not only Ćesir's favorite but also Zvizdić's.

The two of them, following a well-established pattern, planned to "use up" young and promising cadres (Bučo and Konaković) in public, while bringing in the publicly unknown Šabić, who is supposed to be their puppet, to the position of Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton.

Neither Bučo nor Konaković are certainly willing to be mere servants, as they have proven through their professional engagement so far.

It is absurd to bring a man to the prime ministerial position who could not help the recovery of a once-successful airline, but actively participated in its ruination, which, according to Zvizdić's and Ćesir's criteria, is the main reference.

There have been previous examples of the SDA bringing to important positions, more precisely the chosen circle of people who control personnel policy, those who have already proven themselves skilled at destroying companies, and thus should be rewarded for that job.

A session of the Executive Board of the SDA Cantonal Board Sarajevo is planned for Monday. Zvizdić and Ćesir are actively lobbying among the 28 members of this party body to support their candidate, Šabić.

However, the scenario is not unfolding quite as they planned, as other municipal organizations that proposed Bučo and Konaković will not easily give up their candidates, nor do the members of the Personnel Commission who selected the two of them for the final race think that Šabić should be the mandate-holder.

All of this only confirmed the deep division within the Sarajevo SDA, which has been known since the pre-election period when candidate lists for the General Elections were being compiled.

At that time, for the record, under Zvizdić's influence, Dino Konaković, Kemal Ademović, and Amor Mašović were supposed to be removed from the lists. However, the three of them, with the support of a large part of the Cantonal Board members, demonstrated in the elections by the number of votes won that citizens greatly appreciate and respect them. The rift has been deepening all the time, and now it has obviously reached its culmination.

A session of the SDA Presidency, which is to give consent to the proposal of the Executive Board, is also planned for Monday.