SDA

Osman Mehmedagic, former director of Bosnia's Intelligence and Security Agency and now sanctioned by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, reacted to the penalty by saying that the "accusations are unfounded and false".

Ljubljana – Faris Kočan, a researcher at the Centre of International Relations at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, believes the results of the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina available so far indicate time may have come for civic ideas as opposed to nationalism.

Cakalli is the founder of an informal Bosnian branch of a Turkish far-right group known as the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), some of whose members support neo-fascist ideas. The Grey Wolves are officially called Idealist Hearths (Ulku Ocaklari) and their organisation is affiliated with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, which is an ally of the Turkish ruling party.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and Bosnia presidency member Milorad Dodik (L) meeting in Sarajevo, July 8, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

The Bosnian Serb leader earlier threatened to withdraw all Bosnian Serb officials from state-level institutions and re-establish a Bosnian Serb army, fomenting fresh fears of Bosnia's collapse and of armed conflict.

After leaving the building, SDA presidency member Alma olo said that no agreement had been reached, that everything else was up for discussion.

More than 200 Bosnians holding banners and flags protested on Thursday in Sarajevo over the arrest of the country's intelligence chief, Osman Mehmedagic.

The head of the Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, OSA, was detained by Sarajevo Canton police on Wednesday in an investigation into abuse of office, forgery of documents and money laundering.

Dodik is a former president of the RS - the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) - the other being the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH).

Ahead of the formation of new governments in Bosnia after the October 7 elections, Milorad Dodik, leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, and Dragan Covic, the head of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, on Monday confirmed a coalition agreement after a meeting in East Sarajevo.

Bakir Izetbegovic is the leader of the SDA party and currently the Bosniak (Muslim) representative in the tripartite Presidency of BiH.

Sebija Izetbegovic spoke during an SDA campaign gathering in central Sarajevo to say she is "not a professional politician - but will become one, God willing."

MPs in the entity parliament in Bosnia's Bosniak- and Croat-dominated Federation could vote in the coming weeks on a new draft electoral law put forward by five political parties - aimed at averting the possibility of general elections going ahead in October without a legal mechanism to elect the Federation parliament's upper chamber.