Several thousand Sarajevans took to the streets Saturday in a protest walk against what was dubbed a silent dictatorship by the three, sending a message of discontent with the situation, corruption and injustice in the country.
The protest was organised by Mirsad Hadzikadic and his Platform for progress and was joined by other opposition parties in Sarajevo.
Speaking at the gathering, Hadzikadic said that Bosnian residents are living in a “dictatorship of three dictators,” implying the three ethnic leaders – Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic, Croat leader Dragan Covic and Serb leader Milorad Dodik.
People and Justice Party leader Almedin Konakovic told the gathered citizens and media representatives that they will organise protests across the country if the country's election watchdog postpones the local election, as announced earlier.
“The Central Election Commission (CIK) could have prolonged the election due to the coronavirus pandemic for a month. We've had this political CIK before. If they head into the adventure of postponing the election, we'll organize protests across the country. Not just the Federation entity, but also in the Republika Srpska entity, where we'll show what people think of that,” Konakovic said.
Earlier this week, the CIK announced they would postpone the local election in the country because the country's political leaders could not agree on the budget allocation for the election.
“There's the Federation entity's Prime Minister that's been apprehended, the Asim affair, the ventilator affair, no doubt the people will show the government what they think about postponing the election. You'll see, it's going to be a hot summer and ugly scenes from Bosnia if these people don't return to the democratic framework,” Konakovic stressed.
Održani protesti Platforme za progres uz podršku opozicionih stranaka SDP-a, NS, NBL, NB, NiP @N1infoSA pic.twitter.com/v5PWABTODY
— Rasim Pavica (@RPavica) May 30, 2020
He concluded he hopes the authorities understood the message from Sarajevo.
The protests began at 11:55, od five minutes to twelve as the Platform for Progress symbolically announced. The group walked from Bascarsija, the Old Town municipality, to the state Parliament building.
