The government in the Sarajevo Canton was formed by parties who lost the election, said the Democratic Action Party (SDA) leadership member and Sarajevo Canton Assembly member Aljosa Campara speaking about the government formation process after the general election in Bosnia.

“We won the trust of citizens, and yet the government is formed by losers. They are diminishing the politics of the canton to the space between the Sarajevo neighbourhoods of Bas Carsija and Stup (leaving the rest of the canton out),” Campara told N1. “The six parties that formed the government in the canton have only one thing in common – to form the government in all the cantons without the SDA.”

According to him, the basis of every government should be the party that won the election.

“It must be said that we, as a winning party, will talk to all the parties at the cantonal and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity level and fight for what the citizens gave us – and that is almost 300,000 votes,” he noted.

Bosnia and Herzegovina held a general election in October 2018 at which nationalist parties won most of the votes, individually, however, civic parties in one of its semi-autonomous entities which is shared by Bosniaks and Croats, gathered around the Social Democratic Party and decided to form governments at every possible level, without nationalist parties such as the SDA. These parties also formed the BH Bloc at the state level through which they also take part in the state-level government negotiations.

Bosnia’s other entity, the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) voted for the nationalist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) led by Milorad Dodik. Dodik, who often denies Bosnia’s statehood and speaks of the RS as a state within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was elected as Bosnia’s Serb Presidency member.  

Speaking about the state level government, Campara said his party was aware that they are the party that won the most votes at the state level.

“The Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) and the SNSDachieved good results and it is only normal that they also enter the parliamentary majority. The SDA would like to have one more partner in the government, and we call upon the (civic) BH Bloc to join us,” he added.