The current mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, is resigning from this position. Not much is known about who will be the head of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and some names are still being speculated about. The position is not directly elected by citizens, but depends on the balance of political forces in the City Council.
Until the new City Council is constituted, the current mayor will be replaced by an acting mayor, who will be elected by the current City Council. The City Statute stipulates that the acting mayor cannot be from the same constituent people as the chairman of the Council.
According to the announcements of the chairman of the City Council of Sarajevo, the only proposal that has reached the councilors for this position is Samir Avdić, as the deputy of the current mayor.
And 28 councilors will vote, seven from each city municipality. A two-thirds majority is required to elect the Council’s leadership, and a supermajority, or 15 votes, is required for the mayor. The names for the new mayor are not yet known, and are still being speculated about. However, one name has already been agreed upon before the election, Faruk Kapidžić from the SDA.
FARUK KAPIDŽIĆ, President of the Cantonal Board of the SDA:
“The mayor is elected in a very specific way here, they are delegated from the municipal councils to the City Council, and the City Council elects with a majority of votes. According to the results, it is approximately 14:14 in votes, meaning these three parties versus these three.”
On one side, the Coalition of Three, on the other, the SDA, SBiH and DF. Although this time the voting will be public, it does not mean that it will be good for the citizens, some believe.
MUAMER BANDIĆ, Head of the SBiH Club in the Cantonal Assembly:
“What is interesting is that Mr. Kapidžić is mentioned, but no one mentions who the deputy mayors will be, or the leadership that needs to come up with a program so that we can discuss the program and not give prerogatives to some individuals.”
The SDP believes that the SDA will not have enough votes to elect either the mayor or the leadership of the City Council.
DRAGAN STEVANOVIĆ, councilor in GV Sarajevo (SDP):
“I think even if they are counting on the DF, they are counting badly, because knowing the structure of possible future councilors from the DF, I do not think they will receive that kind of support. So it is obvious that the mayor will be elected from the ranks of the Troika in accordance with their coalition agreements.”
ALEN GIRT, Vice President of Our Party:
“I think that we as the Coalition of Three will have some political agreement that it will be a candidate from the Three, in some agreement it was that it would be from the People and Justice, but as I said, that is a long time, let’s find the possibility at this point to have an acting candidate who will be able to perform the standard duties of a mayor.”
In the meantime, the Three has requested the immediate dismissal of Faruk Kapidžić from the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments, who is also a representative in the cantonal assembly, which is an example of a conflict of interest.
ELMEDIN KONAKOVIĆ, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH (NiP):
“We do not link this in any way with the mayor, the election, because the SDA has no chance of electing a mayor. The Three will conduct talks, when we finish filling the city council, it will be someone representative, worthy of that position, who will represent the city of Sarajevo in the best light.”
What is certainly ahead in the coming period are agreements and negotiations, but also a long road to the final mayor.
