Election Sees Power Shift in Serbia's Bosniak Council

The electoral list of Sulejman Ugljanin, president of the Party of Democratic Action, has defeated Belgrade's preferred candidate, Muamer Zukorlic - but has had to enter a coalition in order to keep its grasp over the Bosniak National Council, BNV.

The BNV is a state-designated body representing Serbia's Bosniak [Muslim] community, which is concentrated in the country's southwest Sandzak region.

Serbia's National Minority Councils, NMCs, are autonomous bodies that manage issues of education, culture, official usage of language, and public information for each of Serbia's national minorities.

Three lists made it into the assembly of the BNV after the November 4 elections. Ugljanin's "Self-determination" won 14 seats, Zukorlic's list won 13 seats, and a third list, "Vakat je" (It's Time), won eight.

Vakat je, which was supported by another Bosniak leader, Serbia's Trade Minister, Rasim Ljajic, joined forces with Ugljanin to elect his partner, Esad Dzudzo, as president of the BNV on November 23.

Ugljanin is no longer eligible to head the BNV himself after legal changes made in 2018 forbid those holding high office in a political party from leading a national council.

Sead Biberovic, from Urban In, an NGO based in Sandzak, said Ugljanin's hold over the BNV would weaken following the election of Dzudzo.

"He [Dzudzo] is considered a sort of ideologue in the Party of Democratic Action, so he is not some small pawn in the hands of Ugljanin," Biberovic told BIRN.

Dzudzo already served as acting president of the BNV from 2010 to 2014. Biberovic believes he will have more support from Vakat je than Ugljanin, whose campaign controversially called for the territorial autonomy of Sandzak.

Biberovic thinks that Vakat je,...