Mayor of Tuzla Jasmin Imamovic, as well as mayors of Gracanica – Nusret Helic, Gradacac – Edis Dervisagic, Zivinice – Samir Kamenjakovic and Kalesija – Sead Dzafic, believe that elimination of cantons, or more precisely the executive, legislative and judicial cantonal authorities, is necessary.
This was concluded at yesterday’s meeting in the City Administration of the City of Tuzla, and aforementioned mayors together with the mayor of Tuzla, sent a joint message that they are in the campaign for amendments to the Constitution of the FBiH, which should result in the initiative for the abolition of cantons in the following period, which in the end, in the coming autumn, should be submitted to the Parliament of FBiH.
They propose to abolish the legislative, executive and judicial authorities of cantons, to divide jurisdictions between the FBiH, cities, and municipalities and that cantons remain as a territory, thus to have their representatives at the level of FBiH.
“Within the FBiH there are 10 states that have their own legislative, executive and judicial authorities, they spend huge amounts of money, and we have a total of 11 prime ministers, 142 ministers, 142 secretaries of ministries, hundreds of deputies and advisers, and the economy of our country cannot withstand all of this, said Mayor of Tuzla Jasmin Imamovic, adding that cities and municipalities in FBiH receive only 8.5 % of VAT and other revenues because of cantons, while municipalities in the RS receive 24.5 % of the resources.”
Mayor of the Municipality of Gracanica, Nusret Helic, noted that budgets of municipalities would be increased by three times if there were no cantons, which means economic empowerment as well as great savings, and added that the strength of mayors is a guarantee that they can make the official initiative, which could be submitted to the Parliament of FBiH in the future period.
The initiative for abolishing cantons, written by Mayor of Tuzla Jasmin Imamovic, was also supported by Mayor of Kalesija Sead Dzafic, who gained the trust of his citizens as an independent candidate at the last local elections, and he stated that he talked to other independent mayors in FBiH and that he is expecting their support on this issue as well.
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