The SDA membership elected Bakir Izetbegovic, long-time party official and current member of the BiH Presidency, as the new party president on Tuesday. Izetbegovic has served as acting president since the resignation of Sulejman Tihic, who was hand-picked to run the party in 2001 by Alija Izetbegovic, Bakir’s father.
“I am honoured by these results,” Izetbegovic told the congress after his overwhelming victory. He stressed the importance of reconciliation across Balkan countries, but also among different Bosniak factions within the SDA itself.
“Reconciliation is difficult and painstaking but is still the most important process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the rest of the Balkans,” Izetbegovic told the congress, which was held on the 25th anniversary of the formation of the party.
