Mostar will have a mayor!

Mostar will have a mayor!! The following is the statement by Valentin Inzko, head of OHR in BiH, made yesterday.




I am also taking a decision on Mostar today..

As you are aware, we have not had an elected Mayor for 14 months, nor a budget for 2009.

This has dramatic consequences on the citizens of Mostar and it is scandalous and shocking that political leaders, which they have elected to address these issues, have shown no serious willingness to do so.

I have already had to act twice on Mostar – you know that I did it reluctantly and I only used my Bonn powers in a technical way to extend the budget and also to impose secret balloting, which is in the Statute of Mostar, Article 36..

As the secret vote has been misused this time, and bearing in mind the deteriorating conditions in the city, I now have to step in, in Mostar, again.

I have decided to amend the city statute, because previously there was no need to amend the city statute, because secret balloting is foreseen anyway in the city statute, it was only not applied. But, this time I have to amend the city statute in order to introduce a simple majority in the third round of voting in Mostar. Accordingly, in the first two rounds, a two-thirds majority will be necessary according to the city statute. But, in the third round, a simple majority of councilors present and voting will suffice.

Hopefully – and I have included a clause obliging political parties to attend the session in this respect - this will result in the election of a Mayor. We still have this necessity of having a qualified presence during the voting – a quorum, which means that at least 18 city councilors would have to be present. I think this is very important to maintain the legality, legitimacy and dignity of the new Mayor, and that he is being elected by more than half of the city councilors. Otherwise, it could happen with just a simple majority. Without quorum it could happen that he would get four votes or three votes or whatever. This we would like to prevent, so we are asking for a quorum during the election. And, if this quorum is achieved, a simple majority would suffice of those present.

I have also decided to include a provision dealing with the budget, setting tight timelines for the Mayor to formulate a proposal and for the City Council to adopt it. Should it fail, the Mayor could adopt the budget himself. This is about the 2009 budget, which has to be closed in order to allow the city of Mostar to prepare for the 2010 budget.

I trust that with these measures, and with the willingness of all political actors, we can finally move forward on this and reach a situation where the citizens of Mostar’s legitimate expectations are finally addressed.

Thank you very much for your attention.