Zukorlic's Sandzak Forum Meets Without Ugljanin, Lekic
Ugljanin and Lekic skipped Zukorlic's meeting in Novi Pazar. He says he isn't giving up on the Bosniak forum; Lekic says a joint Bosniak list isn't realistic ahead of the October 25 election.
A meeting of Bosniak political representatives from Sandzak, scheduled for 2 p.m. on September 9 in Novi Pazar, did not take place in the lineup its host had proposed. Usame Zukorlic, leader of the Justice and Reconciliation Party (SPP), had called the meeting, but neither Sulejman Ugljanin, head of the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak, nor Samir Lekic, speaker of the Novi Pazar City Assembly, showed up. Serbian outlets differ on the name of Lekic’s party: Radio Television Novi Pazar calls it the Sandzak Democratic Party, while sandzacke.rs uses the abbreviation SDP.
The meeting was meant to be the first working session of the Forum of Bosniak Political Representatives of Sandzak, an idea Zukorlic floated with a 72 hour deadline after gatherings were held in Belgrade around Ratko Mladic’s burial. Despite the two leaders’ absence, Zukorlic addressed reporters after the scheduled start time and said he was not giving up on the forum.
“Responses have come in to my call to form a forum where Bosniak politicians would take positions, in important moments, for the benefit of the Bosniak people. The responses vary: one is positive, though conditional, while the other is neither positive nor negative, instead raising some points I’m not even sure are accurate. However, that will not discourage us,” Zukorlic said.
The SPP leader stressed that dialogue is a precondition for a strong Bosniak position in Serbia and said that major steps, as he put it, do not happen overnight.
“The road to uniting the Bosniak people will be long. I firmly believe we will form the Forum of Bosniak Political Representatives, if not today, then sooner or later, because unification has no alternative. Something this significant cannot happen quickly, and it shouldn’t be just an election campaign story,” Zukorlic said.
The push for the forum was adopted through the Declaration on the Unification of Bosniaks at the SPP’s election congress on September 4 in Novi Pazar, where Zukorlic was reelected party leader. The plan is for the body to meet regularly once a year, and on an emergency basis in crisis situations, such as Mladic’s burial in Belgrade, which Zukorlic considers to have been one. When he invited Ugljanin and Lekic to the first meeting, Zukorlic also said the forum should not be a coalition or a way to divide up posts, but a joint voice for moments when the Bosniak voice needs to be heard. Zukorlic has served as a minister without portfolio in the Serbian government since May 2024, responsible for reconciliation, regional cooperation and social stability, and previously served as deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
Why Lekic Says a Joint List Isn’t Realistic
As of publication, Ugljanin had not publicly explained why he skipped the meeting. Lekic had, a day earlier, on September 8, in comments to the newspaper Danas.
“It isn’t realistic that a joint list of Bosniak parties will be formed, especially since the parliamentary elections are expected to be called within the next few days,” said Lekic, leader of the Sandzak Democratic Party and speaker of the Novi Pazar City Assembly.
He said the talks about a possible joint run had been useful because they showed there is room for agreement on shared ground, and he proposed a more modest goal than a joint list.
“That’s why it’s much more natural to try to reach an agreement on a fair campaign,” Lekic said.
The talks about a joint run followed a call from Ahmedin Skrijelj, an opposition lawmaker from the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak, made about ten days earlier to the Sandzak Democratic Party and the Justice and Reconciliation Party to consider running together in the parliamentary election. The deadline that came out of that initiative proved, in Lekic’s assessment, too short for formally merging party lists.
The difference between a joint list and separate runs is not only political but administrative. A minority electoral list requires 5,000 certified voter signatures, while other lists need twice as many, 10,000. The Sandzak Democratic Party, the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak and the Justice and Reconciliation Party each clear that threshold more easily on their own than they would as a joint formation that would also have to agree on a single candidate list.
This outlet previously reported that Zukorlic gave Ugljanin and Lekic 72 hours to join a Bosniak forum. The deadline passed without the outcome the SPP had sought, and Zukorlic now says he will repeat the initiative, without setting a new date. The election has been called for October 25, meaning that if a meeting of a different kind does happen, Bosniak parties will be negotiating a joint run in the final weeks before the deadline to file electoral lists.
