Željko Komšić
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| Željko Komšić | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office November 6, 2006 |
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| Preceded by | Ivo Miro Jović |
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| Born | January 20, 1964 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia) |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party  |
Željko Komšić (IPA: [ʒɛʎkɔ komʃitɕ]) (born January 20, 1964, Sarajevo) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian politician of Croatian descent. On October 1, 2006, he was elected to a four-year term as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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[edit] Early life and the war in Bosnia
He was educated at the University of Sarajevo and later the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He is a lawyer by profession.
During the Bosnian war, Komšić served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and received the Golden Lilly — the highest military decoration awarded by the Bosnian government.
[edit] Political career
After the war, Komšić embarked on a political career as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP BiH). He was a councilman of the municipality of Novo Sarajevo and in the city council of Sarajevo, before being elected the head of the municipal government of Novo Sarajevo in 2000. He then also served as the deputy mayor of Sarajevo for two years.
When the coalition "Alliance for Democratic Change" came to power in 1998, Komšić was named the ambassador to the now defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. He resigned this commission after the election in 2002 when SDP went back into opposition.
He is one of the three vice-presidents of the Social Democratic Party.
[edit] 2006 general election
Komšić SDP's candidate for the Croatian seat in the Presidency at the Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2006. He received 97,267 or 41% of the Croat vote, ahead of Ivo Miro Jović (25%), Božo Ljubić (18%) and Mladen Ivanković-Lijanović (9%). He was inaugurated into office on October 1, 2006.
His victory was widely attributed to the split in the HDZ BiH party, in which two factions, one led by Jović and the other by Ljubić split their voting body in two and enabled the SDP to achieve majority.
Komšić is staunchly opposed by the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina who are supporters of HDZ. He is a self-declared Croat, and a baptized Roman Catholic (coming from a religious family), but unlike most of his compatriots (by and large right-wing), he calls the language he speaks Bosnian (rather than Croatian), and is an agnostic himself. He does not have a dual citizenship (both BiH and Croatian), as many other Croats from BiH do, although his wife does.
[edit] Election controversy
The HDZ and some Croats in general, have asserted that Komšić's victory is illegitimate because the electoral system, which is not based along ethnic lines in the Federation, allowed Bosniaks to take advantage of the system and vote for Komšić.
Ivo Miro Jović (of HDZ BiH) has stated that he would refuse to relinquish his post to Komšić. He was quoted in saying "Komšić will not take up this post, he did not get a single vote from a true Croat. I am the Croat member of the Bosnian presidency, according to the will of Bosnian Croats." So far HDZ1990 and the Croatian Party of Rights, who are acting in coalition, have said they will accept Komšić as the legally elected Croat member of the presidency if he serves Croatian interests.
Komšić has nevertheless taken up his position as the Bosnian Croat member of the Presidency. In that role, he has since received a number of the international dignitaries, including Josip Vrbošić, the ambassador of the Republic of Croatia among others[1].
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina | ||
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| Vojislav Kecmanović Đedo | Đuro Pucar Stari | Vlado Šegrt | Rato Dugonjić | Džemal Bijedić | Hamdija Pozderac | Raif Dizdarević | Branko Mikulić | Milanko Renovica | Munir Mesihović | Mato Andrić | Nikola Filipović | Obrad Piljak | Alija Izetbegović | Živko Radišić | Ante Jelavić | Jozo Križanović | Beriz Belkić | Mirko Šarović | Borislav Paravac | Dragan Čović | Sulejman Tihić | Ivo Miro Jović | Nebojša Radmanović | Željko Komšić | Haris Silajdžić | ||
