The decision of Bosnia’s international administrator that the Mostar City Council must elect the mayor through a secret vote is “problematic” and a cause for concern, officials from the main Bosniak ethnic party in the country, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), told N1 on Tuesday.
The new City Council of Mostar held its first session last week where it elected its leadership and formed the clubs of representatives of constituent peoples in the body.
The mayoral vote was, however, postponed because none of the candidates won enough votes and another round was set for February 10.
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The candidate of the HDZ BiH, Mario Kordic, and the candidate of the ‘Coalition for Mostar’, led by the SDA, Zlatko Guzin, passed the first round.
Kordic received 14 votes, Guzin 11 and Irma Baralija, the candidate of the lef-leaning BH Bloc coalition, received five votes. Five councillors abstained.
However, according to the international official tasked with overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, High Representative Valentin Inzko, the vote was not conducted according to the Statute of the City of Mostar as it was public. The vote must be secret, he demanded on Monday.
Inzko reminded that he had previously clearly expressed his opinion regarding the application of this provision of the Statute in his decision repealing a conclusion by the City Council from 2009 that said the vote should be public.
“As the final authority in the country regarding the interpretation of the Agreement on the implementation of the civilian part of the Peace Treaty, I call on you to take the necessary steps to remedy this situation by repeating the current procedural steps governing the election of the Mayor of Mostar, including the first round of voting for the mayor, and in this way to harmonize the election procedure fully with the Statute of the City of Mostar, and especially with paragraph 1 of Article 36 of the said Statute,” Inzko said.
According to Salem Maric, the head of the SDA branch in Mostar, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) seems to favour the BH Bloc.
“We have a reason for concern, the OHR only intervened when it comes to the demands of the BH Bloc. We believe that the OHR put together the demand that the BH Bloc will present, and they never proposed anything when more important matters are at stake,” Maric said.
The Chairman of the City Council, Ivan Zelenika, said that the body will hold a session and discuss Inzko’s request on Wednesday and that “the decision is up to 35 councillors.”
The Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite Presidency, SDA member Sefik Dzaferovic, also commented on Inzko’s demand, saying it is “problematic” but that the councillors from his party will nevertheless respect his decision.
“I think it would be good for the citizens of Mostar, who elected councillors by secret ballot, to see how their will is going to be transmitted through the local council. This is best seen with a public vote,” Dzaferovic said, adding that “when 31 out of 35 councillors say that they support a public vote, it should be respected.”
“I'm afraid there are some behind-the-scenes actions behind that decision, but will we respect the OHR's decision,” he said.
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