Šemsudin Mehmedović, who confirmed on Wednesday that he submitted his candidacy for the president of the Party of Democratic Action at the upcoming congress, announced today that through a notice on the Party of Democratic Action’s website, he learned that the Election Commission of the SDA concluded that he is the only candidate who meets the statutory requirements for the president of the Party, Bakir Izetbegović, and that the Election Commission certified only his candidacy for the president of the SDA.
“Despite the fact that I collected a sufficient number of candidacies for the election of the president of the Party of Democratic Action, the Electoral Commission announced that I had eight candidacies from municipal/city committees, which was not enough to certify the candidacy, and that a certain number of candidacies were rejected due to proposing a larger number candidate,” said Mehmedović in a press release.
He pointed out that nominating a larger number of candidates is a possibility provided for by the Statute and Rules of the electoral procedure, and that the Statute of the SDA prescribes that the elections for all SDA bodies and officials be conducted by secret ballot between several candidates.
However, he added that immediately before the candidacy process, the SDA issued an instruction that stipulated that only one candidate could run for the party president in order to prevent any competition from the current president of the SDA.
“My prevention of candidacy for the position of SDA president shows the lack of courage of the SDA president, his undemocratic and autocratic way of managing the political party and the lack of courage of the SDA leadership to allow pluralism and the possibility of more candidates running for the position of SDA president. Given that my rights as a member of the SDA and a candidate have been violated, I will file a complaint with the Appeals Commission of the SDA and request the protection of my rights in court proceedings,” announced Mehmedović, and added that “what is happening in the SDA is a sign that Bakir is finally inherited the party he robbed of membership”.
“We will see if it is good for the SDA and especially for Bosnia and Herzegovina!,” Mehmedović said in a statement.
