The Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Dragan Covic, said he will win the upcoming election for the post “more decisively than last time”, after it was officially announced he will be up for reelection following a Friday session of his political party, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ).

Covic said he does not know everyone he will run against in the upcoming October general election, but that there may be between six and eight candidates in total.

“We don’t think about who the other candidates will be, we are creating a campaign to decisively win the election, more decisively than last time,” he said.

He said he will mainly tend to the needs of the Croat people in Bosnia, and for the HDZ to “remain the force that can lead Bosnia on its European path and for the positioning of the Croat people as constitutive” in Bosnia.

Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs are named as constitutive peoples in the country’s Constitution, and Covic has been saying Croats are treated unequally.

Some of those running for the post against Covic are Borisa Falatar, from the Nasa Stranka party, Zeljko Komsic from the Democratic Front (DF), Jerko Ivankovic Lijanovic from the Peoples Party for Work and Betterment (NSRZB) and Diana Zelenika, from the Croat Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ 1990, a party that split from the HDZ).

“One part of the electoral base will be that which does not overlap with the HDZ’s electoral base. Parties in Sarajevo have proposed candidates, but that is a different electoral base. It does not even overlap by one percent in total, and this will not burden our campaign,” Covic said.

Covic was elected to serve as Presidency member in 2014 with 128,053 votes, while the second in line was Martin Raguz, from HDZ 1990, with 94,695 votes.