Željko Komšić

Željko Komšić
Member of the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 December 2014
Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
In office 6 November 2006 – 17 November 2014
Preceded by	Ivo Miro Jović
Succeeded by	Dragan Čović
Personal details
Born	20 January 1964 Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Political party	Social Democratic Party (1996–2012) Democratic Front (2013–present)
Spouse(s)	Sabina Komšić
Alma mater	University of Sarajevo

Željko Komšić (born 20 January 1964) is a Bosnian politician who served as the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2014. Komšić was a prominent figure of the Social Democratic Party until he left it in 2012 to join the Democratic Front.

Although elected to the post of Croat member of the tri-partitive presidency, Bosnian Croats considered him to be an illegitimate representative of their interests as he was elected mostly by Bosniak voters in the Federation,^[1] a Bosniak-Croat political entity which forms about half of the country.

Personal life and education

Komšić was born in Sarajevo to a Bosnian Croat father, Marko, and Bosnian Serb mother Danica (née Stanić; 1941 – 1 August 1992), who was killed by a sniper as she sipped coffee in her apartment during the Siege of Sarajevo.^[2] His maternal grandfather Marijan Stanić, who was a Chetnik during World War II, died two years before Komšić was born.^[3] The Stanić family hailed from the village Kostajnica by Doboj.^[4]

Komšić has a law degree from University of Sarajevo. He is married to Sabina, an ethnic Bosniak, a civil engineer. The couple has a daughter named Lana.^[5]

Bosnian war

During the Bosnian war, he served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and received the Golden Lily — the highest military decoration awarded by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian government.^{[6] [7]}

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 "Alliance for Democratic Change" coalition 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.

First term presidency

Komšić was SDP's candidate for the Croatian seat in the Presidency in the Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2006. He received 116,062 votes, or 39.6%^[8] ahead of Ivo Miro Jović (HDZ; 26.1%), Božo Ljubić (HDZ 1990; 18.2%), Mladen Ivanković-Lijanović (NSRB; 8.5%), Zvonko Jurišić (HSP; 6.9%) and Irena Javor-Korjenić (0.7%).^[8] He was sworn into office on 1 October 2006. His victory was widely attributed to a split in the HDZ-BiH party, enabling the SDP to win a majority of the Bosniaks votes. Croats see him as an illegitimate representative of the Bosnian Croats because he was elected mostly by Bosniak voters.^[1]

In May 2008, the Bosniak Member of the State Presidency, Haris Silajdžić, stated during his visit to Washington D. C. that there is only one language in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it goes by three names. His statement created negative reactions from Croat political parties and, at the time, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. Komšić replied to Silajdžić that he is not the one who will decide how many languages are being spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[9]

According to a study conducted by the National Democratic Institute in 2010, Komšić was the most popular politician among the Bosniaks.^[10]

Second term presidency

Komšić's 2010 election results by municipality expressed as a percentage of total valid votes for each municipality. Note that the Bosniak and Croat members of the Presidency are elected from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, while the Serb member is elected from the Republika Srpska entity (greyed out on the map).

At the 2010 general election, Komšić won 337,065 votes, 60.6% of total. He was followed by Borjana Krišto (HDZ; 19.7%), Martin Raguž (HK; 10.8%), Jerko Ivanković-Lijanović (NSRB; 8.1%), Pero Galić (0.3%), Mile Kutle (0.2%) and Ferdo Galić (0.2%)^[11]

References

Citations

1. Berglund 2013, p. 501.
2. "In Little Bosnia, a gift from immigrants". St. Louis Today. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
3. Simić, S. (15 November 2009). "Verovali ili ne: Četnički koreni zlatnog ljiljana?". Press Online. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
4. "Hrvat Željko Komšić potomak četničkog vojvode". Telegraf. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
5. "Sabina Komsic".
6. Željko Komšić - član predsjedništva BIH iz reda hrvatskog naroda - Biografija:
7. Southeast European Times - ZeljkoKomsic - Member of the Presidency, Bosnia and Herzegovina
8. "Opći izbori 2006 - potvrđeni rezultati: hrvatski član Predsjedništva" (in Bosnian). Central Election Committee of BiH. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
9. "Komšić: U BiH se ne govori samo jedan jezik" (in Croatian). Klix. 26 May 2008. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
10. "Najpopularniji Komšić, HDZ raste, pad SDA". Večernji list (in Croatian). 20 May 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
11. "Potvrđeni rezultati Općih izbora 2010. godine: Predsjedništvo BiH - Hrvatski član" (in Croatian). Central Election Committee of BiH. Retrieved 30 July 2012..

Bibliography

• Berglund, Sten (2013). The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781782545880.

External links

• Official web site of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency (Bosnian)
• Official web site of Željko Komšić (Bosnian)