Serbian Bosniak leader Muamer Zukorlic called his followers to bury the hatchet and refrain from insulting rivals in the run-up to the elections for that minority’s top representative political body, the Bosniak National Council.

Zukorlic told the final pre-election gathering of his Matica Bosnjacka organization that they should “bury the evil hatchet and lower the evil flags” in order to show “neighbours from other parties and candidates that they are good and unselfish.” 

“There are no evil Bosniaks, only competitors and rivals. We cannot be enemies to each other even if it seems to be the case,” he said at the rally in central Novi Pazar. Zukorlic is head of the Party of Justice and Reconciliation and an MP in the Serbian parliament.  

He called for unity among the Bosniaks in the western Serbia region of Sandzak which borders on Bosnia and has a large Bosniak Moslem population. “When we win, Serbia and Bosnia will get an honest mediator who does not hate the state he lives in and is conscious of his motherland. We will convince the Serbian elite to stop the destruction of Bosnia, realize that a strong and united Bosnia is in Serbia’s interest.”

A total of 103,492 Bosniaks have the right to vote in the elections for the national minority representative body on Sunday, November 4.