Irfan Čengić declared victory for the mayor of Sarajevo’s Stari Grad municipality.
According to the party results, Čengić won 5,982 (63.29 percent), and his opponent Dženan Selimbegović won 3,470 (26.71 percent). Voter turnout at regular polling stations was 30.34 percent.
On his Facebook, he thanked everyone who voted today in the early elections.
“Thank you people for your support. The Old Town is not governed, the Old Town is served. For the next 11 months, I will serve the citizens and ask for your trust in the future based on the results of my work,” he said.
In his status, he wrote that he ran a clean, positive campaign, “a campaign about the future about the Old Town, about us and not about others.”
“My friends, councilors, our families and I were victims of lies, attacks and tricks, but the people recognized it. Thank you to everyone who was with me from the heart, as I said this is a victory for all of us, and the defeat would be only mine “, he said.
He said that he would be the chief of all people.
“Party interests will be on the sidelines, and I expect that from councilors. We will bring new energy, new projects, a new attitude towards people, a new time without corruption to Stari Grad, and I invite you to follow us to see if we keep our promises. Stari Grad loves its children “, Čengić said.
SDA candidate Dženan Selimbegović, who lost, said that he will not stand in Cengić’s way.
Selimbegović first congratulated his opponent Irfan Čengić on his victory, and then thanked the citizens who had placed their trust in him.
“I consider it a personal success that in a short period of time I was able to prove my credibility to the citizens. I remained consistent with my promise that I made in direct conversations with the citizens who decided to support me. I am satisfied because in these two months we had nothing to blush about,” he said.
He said that he would support Čengić and drink coffee with him after the elections.
“Me and Čengić agreed to have coffee after the election, regardless of the result, in the middle of the campaign. In this way, we want to show that regardless of political differences, we will not allow any bad solutions to be an obstacle,” he said.
Selimbegović was a candidate of SDA, and he was supported by NES, SBiH and Part of DF. Čengić and Selimbegović were the only candidates.
Early elections followed after the citizens recalled Ibrahim Hadžibajrić (NES) from the position of mayor in the July referendum. He has been the chief since 2008, when he was elected as a candidate of the SDA. In subsequent election cycles, he was elected as a candidate of SBB, NBL and NES.
The Municipal Council of Stari Grad made a decision to hold a referendum after Hadžibajrić was arrested in May this year and has been in custody since then. Hadžibajrić, his son Seid, the secretary of the Stari Grad Municipality Alma Destanović, Elmedin Karišik and Emina Rogo are charged with organized crime, abuse of position or authority, money laundering and receiving and giving gifts.
