The initiation of the procedure for impeachment of the mayor of the Sarajevo municipality Centar Srdjan Mandic stirred up the political scene two days ago.
The political shock triggered an avalanche of questions about relations within the Coalition of the Three, and according to available information, it put the President of the NiP, Elmedin Konakovic, in the most difficult position.
When Srdjan Mandic convincingly won the elections for mayor of Centar municipality in the 2020 local elections, as a joint candidate of the Coalition of the Three, with over 65 percent of the votes, it was hard for anyone to imagine that there would be a demand for his removal, and that removal was initiated and launched within the Coalition of the Three.
Tests for the Coalition of the Three
For the sake of the bigger picture, it is worth remembering that the Coalition of the Three (SDP, NiP, and NS) works very compactly on almost all levels. Until now, they have supported each other in the Canton Sarajevo (CS) Government without any major conflicts, and they are part of the government at both the federal and state level. However, at the local level, they act as an out-of-tune orchestra.
For a very long time, this group of parties has not had a unified policy in the Sarajevo municipality of Novo Sarajevo. In the meantime, NiP and NS stood up against the jointly elected candidate Hasan Tanovic, while the mayor went from being an independent candidate to SDP. Tanovic’s majority in the Council currently depends on the support of SDP, a few independent councilors, and, paradoxically, SDA.
In the meantime, the Coalition of the Three parties is holding together in Stari Grad, where they managed to vote for the dismissal of the arrested mayor Ibrahim Hadzibajric, whom they again paradoxically supported together in the 2020 elections.
Even when the public did not talk much about the option of Srdjan Mandic’s dismissal, the initiative was signed, submitted to the procedure, and voted on in one day.
The Ademovic’s are the initiator of Mandic’s dismissal
The main initiator of the story about the dismissal is the municipal organization NiP, although the president of that party, Elmedin Konakovic, does not support this move at all. Therefore, the day before yesterday, chaos arose both in the ranks of NiP and within the Coalition of the Three parties.
According to information, Konakovic knew nothing about the intention of his local NiP in Centar to remove Mandic. And the extent to which Konakovic is currently torn between two fires is shown by the information that Jasmin Ademovic, who is a councilor, and his father Kemal Ademovic are behind the story about starting the procedure for Mandic’s dismissal. It should be mentioned that Ademovic is the vice president of NiP and a long-time friend and godfather of Konakovic.
How Mandic leads the municipality and what are the reasons for initiating the procedure for his dismissal will be left aside for the moment. What this move will inevitably cause is an upheaval in the Coalition of the Three. Because how will the SDP and NS now observe NiP, which initiates the dismissal of their leader? And regardless of the fact that Konakovic does not want it, he will have a problem balancing relations, along with inevitable problems in his party.
According to the current events, Konakovic obviously does not have control over all the processes in his party, and to make his problem even bigger, his opponents in the party are the Ademovics.
Since the formation of the Coalition of the Three, Konakovic has had a difficult task, and he is the one who tries to maintain a balance between the various ideological differences, as well as all other differences within the Coalition of the Three. Generally speaking for a long time there are two forces in NiP. On one side, the Ademovics, and on the other, Aljosa Campara and Denis Zvizdic. Konakovic is the one who is the link and tries to hold everything together.
Now the question arises as to how the situation behind the municipality of Centar will be reflected on other levels, from the CS Government, and other municipalities, but also in general preparations for the upcoming local elections next year, where the Coalition of the Three’s joint performance is of great importance.
