At a New Year's press conference at which he spoke about the election results achieved by the SDA in the local elections held on November 15th, Izetbegović announced a decisive personnel renewal of municipal committees in which the SDA achieved poor election results. Izetbegović announced the dismissal of SDA municipal committees in Sarajevo's Centar, Novo Sarajevo and Ilidža municipalities, where the SDA suffered a flood, lost mayoral seats and a majority in councils, and after a long time lost its mayoral position.
- The SDA has learned a lesson or it will change within itself or it will risk weakening and being changed. We will change within ourselves. We must give a chance to young, educated, eloquent staff, said Izetbegović, emphasizing that the SDA must look like the environment in which it wants to achieve success. In Tuzla, Zenica, Bihać, now in Sarajevo, we have, unfortunately, completed the failure in urban centers. There will probably be changes in Ilidža, in Novo Sarajevo and the Center, and then, presumably, new elections will happen in the Cantonal Board of the SDA Sarajevo, but that will be decided by the Presidency of the SDA. I will give these recommendations - said Izetbegović.
In this way, Izetbegović indirectly announced the possible dismissal of Fikret Prevljak as the head of the cantonal committee of this party.
This position of Izetbegović was also supported by Abdulah Skaka, the current mayor of Sarajevo in front of this party.
- There is no doubt that changes need to be made, that is what the voters told us in the elections. I am convinced that the SDA, as the strongest political party, as we have shown before, has enough capacity and breadth to produce personnel who will achieve better election results in Sarajevo. I support what President Izetbegović said that trust should be given to young and energetic people in the interest of citizens and the state. These changes will show the strength of the SDA - Skaka told for „Avaz“.
It should be reminded that the affair with the election of Prevljak as the new head of the SDA cantonal committee caused an avalanche of disintegration and internal conflicts in the SDA.
Although Prevljak was officially elected in the race for the post with more votes than his opponent Semir Efendić, a video leaked to the public showing the then SDA vice president Asim Sarajlić negotiating the loyalty of the voice of an unknown envoy, who should have been secured vote for Fikret Prevljak instead for Efendić.
However, in addition to this topic, the recording also shows Sarajlić presenting numerous details from the recent and distant past when it comes to corruption in staffing, lobbying, employment, but also plans for the future.
Although Efendić never acknowledged the result of the internal party elections, Prevljak, the "poltron of the Izetbegović family", as he describes himself, remained at the head of the cantonal committee. But after the scandal, the party took a detour.
Apart from Sarajlić's resignation from all party functions, Aljoša Čampara was expelled from the party, who openly stood by the mayor of Novi Grad and called for responsibility. Semir Efendić himself was at the party's exit door for a long time. Apart from Efendić, another potential candidate for leaving the SDA ship is one of the most prominent members of its leadership, Denis Zvizdić, who openly criticizes Izetbegović's moves and would undoubtedly withdraw several other prominent party leaders by leaving the party.
However, the showdown with the intra-party opposition did not help Izetbegović much. The Sarajevo SDA, led by Prevljak, suffered a flood in the capital, losing mayoral posts in key Sarajevo municipalities, and will be without a mayor after a long time.
Whether he is faced with intra-party pressure and the election embarrassment of his favorite cadres, Izetbegović finally decided to withdraw from the pressures, keep the peace in the party and let his cadres down the water, remains to be seen.
However, if Izetbegović really intends to dismiss staff in Sarajevo Canton, as he announced today, then his wife Sebija Izetbegović, who is nominally the vice president of Cantonal Committee SDA Sarajevo, and is actually the real boss of Fikret Prevljak, could be left without a party function in that package.
