SARAJEVO, BIHAĆ, KISELJAK, KREŠEVO – The citizens of Bihać, those who voted, put their trust in the current mayor Elvedin Sedić, the candidate of the Movement for a Modern and Active Krajina (PoMAK). He began his first mandate in February 2023, when early elections for the mayor were held due to the departure of the then leader Šuhret Fazlić to the position of representative in the Assembly of the Una-Sana Canton, writes žurnal.info.
Bihać: How to spend the budget?
After the announcement of the election results, the SDA rejoiced the most. Although their candidate Rusmir Musa failed to compete with Sedić, they won one more council mandate compared to the previous elections. This seems to be a “Pyrrhic victory”. SDA has 9 mandates in the city council, as many as PoMAK.
The vote in the City Council will be dominated by SDP with four, NES with three, NiP and SBiH with two, and “We can do better” with one councilor. Among the individual winners of the mandate, we single out the former Prime Minister of the Una-Sana Canton and the leader of Bihac, Hamdi Lipovač. This time, the long-time SDP member was on the list of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Just after the announcement of the election results, Mayor Sedić announced work on capital projects in the traffic infrastructure, that is, connecting Bihać with other cities of USK. True, it should be the task of the cantonal government, but the residents of this area will not care who will implement it, just to finally see some result of spending budget money. This year’s budget in Bihać is about 46 million KM.
It will be conditionally interesting to follow whether the big donor of PoMAK, the company “Behić-Sanny Boy”, will remain so, and about the conflict of interest related to this company, which at the same time received jobs financed by the city managed by this party, Žurnal once wrote.
Kiseljak: New opportunity for old priority companies
Nothing new in Kiseljak, at least when it comes to the mayor’s name. HDZ member Mladen Mišurić-Ramljak begins his sixth term. His rivals Armin Halilović (SDA) and Anel Topalović (SDP – NiP – NS) could not match even if they counted their votes. HDZ has almost half of the 31 mandates in the council, and there is no doubt that it will have its main partner in SDA, which won 6 seats.
The elections, like in Fojnica, Konjic and Kreševo, were held two weeks after the official date, due to the floods that hit these municipalities in addition to Jablanica.
“Thank you to all Kiselja women and men who exercised their democratic right, exercised civil society, went to the polls – and today elected a government that will know how to respond to all their needs“, Mayor Mladen Mišurić-Ramljak said after the announcement of the election results.
Hundreds of houses, dozens of business buildings, agricultural land in the area of Kiseljak were damaged due to floods in early October. Part of the municipal infrastructure also needs to be renovated. It is to be believed that this opportunity is seen by a group of businessmen close to Mayor Mišurić and the Croatian Democratic Union, above all Per Pecirephead of the company Cesta Mostar in Kiseljak, as it was in the previous period.
Let’s single out just one of the several criminal charges against Chief Mišurić that he is talking about wrote Journal. In the application, it is stated that the mayor of the Kiseljak municipality “established partnership relations” with the firms Bar-Floor and Ceste Company, and thus enabled the acquisition of funds. Part of the application refers to the fact that the Ceste Company occasionally uses the machines of the Ceste Mostar company, which is majority owned by the state, when carrying out works. Applications are also supported by photographs.
Other reported applications related to public procurement for the construction of the Health Center in Kiseljak, the construction of the Sports and Recreation Zone in Kiseljak, the roundabout, violation of the Law on Public Procurement, sand exploitation…
Judging by the election results, and knowing the “timeliness” of the SBK Prosecutor’s Office, it is unlikely that there will be any changes in this segment in Kiseljak.
Kreševo remains an HDZ bastion
The only surprise in Kreševo was that the HDZ BiH won one mandate less in the municipal council compared to the previous elections. But even those nine out of fifteen are enough for this party to rule this small municipality sovereignly. For the mandate in the council, it was enough to fight for 63 votes, which was the number of HDZ candidates in 1990. In addition to this party, the council will also have three SDA councilors and one each from HSP and SDP.
Vedran Drmać (HDZ BiH) managed to renew his mandate, and we single him out because as a councilor he was the “winner” of business space at a symbolic price, although the approval of the Municipal Council was not required, but the support of the mayor at the time was sufficient, just as wrote recently Journal.
First, we list the results of the voting for the Kreševo Municipal Council, because the mayor’s mandate was won by the only candidate on the electoral list, Boris Marić from the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He worked as an adviser in the previous two mandates of the elected head Renat Pejak, should we say, from HDZ BiH. In his first statements after the election, Marić announced action towards the rehabilitation of roads, water supply and sewerage structures damaged by the flood, stressing that it will be difficult without the help of higher levels of government.
The two mandates of his predecessor Pejak were characterized by several dubious actions related to the municipality’s operations. This was also concluded by the federal auditors in their report on the financial audit of the Municipality of Kreševo for 2023. Details from the report match the previous one writings Journal about events in this municipality.
City of Sarajevo: Uncertain choice of mayor
Four Sarajevo municipalities will provide councilors to the Sarajevo City Council, Stari Grad, Centar, Novo Sarajevo and Novi Grad, seven from each municipality. Those 28 will elect the mayor of Sarajevo, for a change this time by public vote.
The current ratio of political forces in the municipal councils is equal, SDA-SbiH-DF on one side of the so-called party. Troika (SDP, NIP and Naša strekje) on the other hand, the national structure of councilors could be decisive. According to the Statute of the City of Sarajevo, those who declare themselves as Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats have at least six seats each, and other councilors at least two. According to previous analyses, this gives a certain advantage to the parties of the troika, due to the national structure of their candidates on the lists for municipal councils.
This already hints at a “crowded” fight for every vote, and the names of the mayoral candidates are no less uncertain. The only thing that is certain is that it will not be the recent mayor, Benjamina Karić. She has already resigned from this position and is going to become the mayor of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, having won as a candidate of her parent party, the SDP.
Even the appointment of the acting mayor, who was not elected at the last session, shows enough how important it is for each party that this position, which was once thought of as more of a protocol, should have exactly its staff. So far, Faruk Kapidžić (SDA) appears as a certain candidate. Until a few days ago, the name of the former deputy mayor Samir Avdić (NIP) was mentioned, but he still chose the position of councilor in the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo.
Let us remind you that after the last local elections, the appointment of Bogić Bogićević as mayor of Sarajevo was announced as a “done deal”. After a series of behind-the-scenes actions and lobbying bordering on a criminal act, Bogićević was tricked. These political games are the reason why this year’s voting will be public.
Benjamina Karić came to the head of the City of Sarajevo as an unknown member of the SDP until then. Announced as the mayor who will fight for the “rights and equality of all citizens”, at the beginning of her mandate she made a big promise – the fight against corruption and full transparency in her work.
The journal will soon discover as the habits of Mayor Karić, at least when it comes to public procurement, in some aspects do not differ significantly from those of her predecessor from the SDA, Abdullah Skaka.
MIS BIH
Source: capital.ba
