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Multi-Ethnic Social Democrats Hope To End Nationalist Rule
by Amra Hadziosmanovic
SARAJEVO (AFP) - The multi-ethnic Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) has focused on economic issues in its bid to end the decade-long rule of the three nationalist Muslim, Croat and Serb parties when Bosnians go to the polls Saturday.
After defeating the Muslim nationalist Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in major Muslim cities in April's local elections, the SDP's popularity has grown with surveys showing the party ahead in the race for the Bosnian parliament as well as the Muslim-Croat entity parliament.
SDP leader Zlatko Lagumdzija said that this was due to its decision to concentrate on economic, rather than nationalist issues, and the nationalist parties' failure to improve living standards and the "fiasco" of their attempts to fight widespread corruption.
Lagumdzija, 45, a computer science professor, said his party's experts had worked two years on preparing a program for recovery for the collapsing Bosnian economy. Unemployment is at 40% and 60% of the population lives in poverty.
He admitted that he would be frightened to win the election because of what awaited the victorious party, but at the same time he said he was "even more afraid of the possibility that things remain the same."
His priorities include radical economic reform, strengthening institutions as a precondition for a successful fight against corruption, and the return of refugees displaced during the Bosnian war.
Although topping opinion polls, the SDP is not likely to win a majority in parliament in Bosnia's third post-war elections. But Lagumdzija said: "We expect to be able to form a majority along with other parties with a similar platform and drive the nationalists into opposition."
He said the SDP could seek partnerships with parties from the Bosnian Serb entity with similar goals. "I believe elements exist for cooperation between the SDP and parties such as [Bosnian moderate premier Milorad] Dodik's social democrats and the Party of Democratic Progress of Mladen Ivanic," he said.
"But it is too early to say if that cooperation is possible", he said adding that future collaboration depended on the two Serb parties' election score and their position on his party's political platform.
In the legislative election for parliament of the Muslim-Croat Federation, which along with Republika Srpska makes up post-war Bosnia, the SDP expects to gain more seats than the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), the main Muslim and Croat nationalist parties.
In the two previous elections, the SDA, HDZ and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) won a majority with the SDP the main opposition force. SDA officials often compare SDP with the communist party that ruled former Yugoslavia for 45 years during which religious expression was denied.
Muslim nationalists also accuse the international community, which organizes the elections, of openly supporting the SDP. Lagumdzija, a Bosnian Muslim, has dismissed the charges as "absurd". It made no sense to claim that a party, allegedly supported by the United States, would try to reinstate communism, he said.
He dismissed any similarities with the communist party, even though the party inherited property from the former communist party when it became its legal successor in 1990.
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