Komsic To Form Own Party in Bosnia

The Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency on Thursday said he was starting a new party which, according to him, will be ready to fight for real changes in the October 2014 general elections.

After months of speculation about his next political move after leaving the Social Democratic Party in June, Zeljko Komsic confirmed that he is working on forming a completely new party dedicated to fighting for change, he told the Federation entity public broadcaster, FTV.

Komsic holds one of the three seats in the State Presidency for another two years but he said that he intended to remain in politics after that.

“I expect the support of all who want this country to be a country of equal people and a country where no one will be afraid to fight criminals,” Komsic said on Thursday night.

He said he had left the ruling SDP in June as it was not fulfilling the promises it made before the general election in 2010.

The main reason he left was the SDP's proposed constitutional changes, he added, since they discriminated against hundreds of thousands of people who did not align with any of the three main ethnic groups.

Constitutional changes are demanded by the 2009 Sejdic-Finci human rights ruling of the European Court of Human Rights ruling.

This has urged Bosnia to change its laws to allow members of ethnic minorities run for top governing posts, currently reserved for members of the three main ethnic groups, Bosniaks [Muslims], Serbs and Croats.

The SDP's proposed solution was supported by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, its sister party, HDZ 1990, and by the SDP's new coalition partner, the Alliance for a Better Future, SBB.

Komsic first quit the SDP in March, arguing that the party was not addressing real problems in the country, such as corruption, but the party did not accept his resignation.

Speaking about his final resignation from the SDP in June, he said he did not have enough support from the party presidency which confirmed that he had no choice but to quit.

“If the party presidency doesn't support you, what is there to fight for?” Komsic asked. “I came to the SDP by myself, I left by myself too.”

In the 2010 elections more than 300,000 people had crossed his name, he said, and because of them, he could not stand to be a part of the party which promised changes but did not implement them.