Bosnia's Komsic Decides to Stay in SDP

“My colleagues say that I am running away – but I am telling them now: I will not run away! All the things I was supposed to do and I have not done – I will do them now!” Komsic told reporters in Sarajevo on Wednesday after a session of the SDP presidency. The meeting was called to discuss Komsic's resignation from all posts in the party which he submitted on Monday, without any explanations.

At the session, the Social Democrat Party presidency decided not to accept Komsic's  resignation. He said he respected the decision of the party's leadership and pledged to invest all his efforts to change the way SDP is leading the country.

“I will not be quiet anymore,” Komsic said referring to corruption as the biggest problem troubling Bosnia. He vowed he will run for the post of SDP president at the next party congress saying the party needed to be reorganised.

Komsic will remain deputy president of the SDP as well as a member of the SDP presidency and the Central Committee.

As a member of the Bosnian Presidency he did not have influence on what is being done by the Federation government or at the state-level in the fight against corruption. He said that the necessary reforms include the adoption of the law on illegally acquired property.

“If the goverment does not pass the law on illegally acquired property, then the government should fall!” he said.

The SDP leader, Zlatko Lagumdzija, who addressed reporters together with Komsic, said that he had proposed to step down from his post but the SDP members voted against it. Lagumdzija promised he will not run again for the leadership of the party.

He said that Komsic's move made the party even more united and determined to work more effectivelly in solving the numerous problems in the country.

“This was like an adrenalin shot,” Lagumdzija said.

Komsic's resignation has fueled criticism of Lagumdzija’s management.

Komsic gained around 337,000 votes as the Croat member of the Presidency and is one of the most popular politicians in Bosnia.

Controversially, many Bosnian Croats have refused to consider him as their community’s legitimate representative in the state presidency.

They claim he received most of his votes from Bosniaks [Muslims] and from the ethnically undeclared. The SDP is a left-of-centre secular party but is Bosniak-dominated.