Corruption Scandal Shakes Bosnia’s Largest Political Party

Asim Sarajlic, the deputy leader of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the strongest Bosniak party in the country, resigned on Monday evening after the leak of an audio file which allegedly revealed details of a corrupt deal involving party officials.

Semir Efendic, a recent candidate for the post of president of the SDA's Sarajevo Canton board, published the audio file on Saturday.

On the audio file, SDA deputy leader Sarajlic and party member Sabahudin Delalic can allegedly be heard promising to hire the wife of a delegate who in turn was to vote for Fikret Prevljak rather than Efendic in the internal party elections for president of the SDA's Sarajevo Canton board.

Efendic went on to lose the election. Of the 99 delegates entitled to vote, 59 voted for Prevljak and 40 for Efendic.

The recording sparked strong reactions from the public and politicians, and Efendic was questioned by the Cantonal Police in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

In the audio recording, which has been heard by BIRN, Sarajlic appears to promise that the delegate's wife would be given a job through Emir 'Actor' Hadzihafizbegovic and Senad 'Cvrle' Hasanspahic.

Hasanspahic and Hadzihafizbegovic, a well-known Bosnian actor, had been proposed by the SDA as ministers in the Sarajevo Canton government.

However, the proposal was dropped on Monday night after the scandal erupted and some members of the party demanded that the two men's names be withdrawn.

The president of the SDA, Bakir Izetbegovic, said he was surprised by the incident but promised that wrongdoers would be sanctioned.

He added however that he thought that the case should have been handled differently.

"When things like this happen, and this is obviously a set-up situation, it...