Bosnia Govt's Woes Deepen as More MPs Defect

Bosnia's embattled ruling coalition, comprising the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the Alliance for Better Future of Bosnia, SBB, and the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, has lost the support of another two MPs in the state parliament.

Safer Demirovic, an MP in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday said he was leaving the SDA and would now sit as an independent in parliament, the Sarajevo news site Klix.ba reported. Borislav Bojic meanwhile said he was quitting the SDS.

Bojic said the SDS was no longer the party it used to be, adding that he did not inform his party about his decision to leave it.

The government already lost its majority in April of last year, when four SDA MPs in the House of Representatives, Salko Sokolovic, Sadik Ahmetovic, Senad Sepic and Safer Demirovic, also quit the party.

The SDA now has only six of its original 10 MPs left in the House of Representatives. As a result of various defections, the opposition parties in the chamber now have 23 representatives, and the government only 18.

The SDA, the main Bosniak party in Bosnia and one of the strongest parties in the country for the past three decades, is facing a crisis after several of its key people recently left or were removed from the party. 

It remains questionable how the government can continue to operate, as it now clearly lacks enough MPs to secure the adoption of bills that the government, the Council of Ministers, has submitted. 

Since leaving the SDA, Sadik Ahmetovic, Salko Sokolovic and Senad Sepic have formed the "Independent Bloc Club".

Making the situation even more complicated, the SBB, although part of the parliamentary majority, is behaving increasingly as if it were in opposition.