The leaders of eight political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina which so far have been in the opposition have agreed to form a coalition which is expected to be part of the country's new authorities.

The main parties of this opposition bloc are parties of Bosniak and civic orientation – the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the People and Justice (NiP) party and Our Party (NS) – which had agreed in principle to form a coalition also before the 2 October general election, and they have now been joined by the Party for BiH (SBiH), the Movement for New Generations, the Party of Democratic Action (PDA), the People's European Alliance (NES) and a slate headed by Zenica Mayor Fuad Kasumovic.

Their representatives on Wednesday agreed on a document on programme cooperation which is expected to be signed soon, the SDP said on social networks.

The document would oblige the parties to jointly form the parliamentary majority at all levels, nominate together candidates for the president and vice presidents of the BiH Federation entity, and adopt a single position for talks with other potential partners.

The agreement also includes work on joint guidelines for the work of the government in the period until 2026.

In principle, the agreement is open also to the Democratic Front (DF) of Zeljko Komsic, even though his party has so far been a firm ally of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

Eight-member opposition bloc has more deputies than SDA

NiP leader Elmedin Konakovic suggested, however, that this was not a good idea because it was clear that the alliance between Komsic and the SDA was still strong and that he was trying to keep the biggest Bosniak party in power.

“I have proof from the ground that Komsic is doing that dirty job for the SDA,” Konakovic told the BHRT public broadcaster.

He explained that Komsic was trying to convince, directly or through intermediaries, other parties’ representatives to agree to that concept in exchange for participation in different levels of government.

Individually, the SDA won the most votes in the 2 October elections for the state-level and Federation entity parliaments, however, the eight-member opposition bloc can muster more deputies and squeeze the SDA out of the government considering that the SDA can only count on a coalition with Komsic.

Both blocs accept the fact that the Croat HDZ BiH party is an unavoidable partner in government formation both at the state and the entity level.

Konakovic said that the HDZ's dominance in all majority Croat parts of the country was due to actions by the DF, which together with the SDA imposed Komsic on Croats as the Croat member of the BiH Presidency.

“They have made the HDZ an unavoidable political factor that has control over all political processes in almost all cantons where they ran in elections,” Konakovic said.

There have been no concrete talks with the HDZ yet, he said, noting that he expected their start to be scheduled this week.

Possible partners in the Serb entity of Republika Srpska for the state-level authorities are still the SNSD party of Milorad Dodik as well as the opposition Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP).