The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that 91 political parties and 17 independent candidates applied to run in the October 2nd General Elections. Many of these parties, despite the significant increase in taxes, have also applied for members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the President, ie Vice President of the Republika Srpska. However, that does not mean that all these political entities will eventually have their own candidates.
It is already known that the proposal of the Three (Trojka), SBB, NES and several other parties for the member of the Presidency will be SDP’s Denis Becirovic.
“We are showing that in the first step we are able to unite as the opposition, and in the second step after the elections we will start a real unification,” said the vice president of the SDP of BiH, Denis Becirovic.
The SDA will also have its own candidate for the BiH Presidency. It will most likely be the president of the party, Bakir Izetbegovic, who has served as a member of the Presidency twice so far.
“The fact that everyone is uniting against one, and that is a proof of strength. Where are the presidents of these parties, why are they pushing out a third or a fourth?” Said Izetbegovic.
Unlike the opposition in the Federation of BiH, which has chosen the tactics of enlargement, in the Republika Srpska a slightly different approach. The DNS is running in the elections on its own, with the party’s president, Nenad Nesic, as a candidate for the presidency and Radislav Jovicic as the president of the Republika Srpska. SDS and PDP have one name – Jelena Trivic, the candidate for the presidency of Republika Srpska. The SDS should give a candidate for a member of the Presidency of BiH, and the chances for that are the president of the Main Board Milan Milicevic and the leader of that party Mirko Sarovic.
“I would not prejudge anything on that issue, we are leaving it for the session of the party bodies. You will know that very soon. As the competition will come out very soon with their names, candidates,” said SDS President Mirko Sarovic.
And in the ranks of the ruling party in the Republika Srpska, several options are mentioned, but it is also said that they will have joint candidates. Three names are running within the SNSD – Milorad Dodik, the party’s president, Nebojsa Radmanovic and Zeljka Cvijanovic. It will mostly depend on Dodik’s decision – whether he will run for office in Republika Srpska or for another term in the Presidency. They go to all levels of government.
“For the NARS, for the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, for the President of the Republika Srpska and for the Serbian member of the Presidency of BiH. It is also important that we applied for all levels – from cantons to the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”said the SNSD’s spokesperson Radovan Kovacevic.
It is also known that the leader of the DF, Zeljko Komsic, will try until his fourth term in the Presidency of BiH. HNS will also have one name. It was speculated that it will probably be Mario Kordic, the mayor of Mostar, but he denied it. The name of the president of the HDZ BiH, Dragan Covic, remains, although they did not come out with an official confirmation.