Mario Kordic (HDZ Bosnia and Herzegovina – BiH) and Zlatko Guzin (Coalition for Mostar) are left in the race for mayor of Mostar, after a repeat of the first round of voting in the Mostar City Council.
Kordic got 14 votes, Guzin 12, Irma Baralija (BiH bloc) 2, while Arman Zalihic (SDP BiH) did not receive any votes. Three votes were invalid.
After the announcement of the results, at the request of the Coalition for Mostar, the session was delayed, and the resumption is scheduled for tomorrow, February 12th at 3:30 p.m.
Before that, councilors of the SDP BiH and the ”Prva Mostarska Partija” (PMP) yesterday left a session of the Mostar City Council. After accepting his candidacy for mayor of Mostar, Arman Zalihic (SDP BiH) requested that the session be adjourned for additional consultations. The proposal was rejected, and three councilors from SDP BiH and two from PMP decided to leave the session.
After the break, 29 councilors who remained at the session began voting in the repeated first round for the election of the mayor of Mostar. Boska Cavar, a councilor of the BiH bloc who was not present at yesterday’s session due to illness, voted from home, in a sealed envelope, reports Nikola Bacic, BHRT reporter.
In the repeated first round of voting for the mayor of Mostar, Kordic and Guzin received the most votes once more, so tomorrow one of them will become the new mayor.
A two-thirds majority is also needed in the second round of voting, and if neither of the two remaining candidates receives as much support, there will be a third round in which a simple majority is sufficient.
In case of a tie, the mayor will become a younger candidate.
To recall, in the continuation of the constituent session, the City Council of Mostar considered the opinion of the High Representative that the election of the Mayor of Mostar should be done by a secret ballot and annulled the first round of elections held on Friday.
The councilors decided to enable the secret ballot for the councilor of the BiH bloc, Boska Cavar, who was not attending yesterday’s session due to illness.
In the first round of voting for the mayor of Mostar on Friday, the candidate of HDZ BiH Mario Kordic received the most votes – 14, the candidate of the Coalition for Mostar Zlatko Guzin 11, and the candidate of BiH bloc Irma Baralija 5 votes, while two councilors of the PMP and three councilors of the Croatian Republican Party left restrained.
After the first round of elections, the session was delayed due to lack of quorum, and in the meantime, High Representative Valentin Inzko annulled the first round of voting because it was conducted by the public rather than the secret ballot as provided by the Mostar City Statute, BHRT writes.
