Ivanic Tries to Calm Bosnian Serb Opposition Nerves

The Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Mladen Ivanic, who comes from the Bosnian Serb opposition bloc, has dismissed reports that the bloc could break up following the defeat in recent local elections.

"Everything is following its normal course ... Nobody has asked for a recomposition [of the state government]," Ivanic said on Tuesday, following high-level meetings amid concerns about the future of the Bosnian Serb opposition bloc and its continued role in the state-level coalition government.

Ivanic, a member of the Bosnian Serb opposition Party of Democratic Progress, PDP, held meetings with the Croat and Bosniak members of the presidency and with ministers who represent Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, in the state government.

The concerns on the future of the state-level coalition came after the Alliance for Change, the main opposition bloc in RS, suffered significant losses in the local elections on October 2 against the entity's president, Milorad Dodik, and his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD.

The main party in the Alliance for Change, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, won only eight mayoral posts in the elections, down from over 20 in the 2012 polls.

The party lost seats to the SNSD in the old SDS stronghold of Pale, east of Sarajevo, for example. The PDP lost its hold over the south-eastern town of Trebinje.

The SDS is in deep flux after party president Mladen Bosic and vice-president Ognjen Tadic resigned at a closed meeting of the party main board on Saturday.

At the meeting, Bosic took responsibility for the party's poor results. However, the main board did not agree on a new leadership, and the process is expected to continue.

Bosic's withdrawal, which...