Tankovic told Hina that the accusation should be ascribed to petty politicking and "an attempt by Montenegrin and Macedonian associations to retain the privileged position given to them by the Government's Office for National Minorities".
Tankovic recalled that this was evident at a discussion of the National Minorities Council on the allocation of funds for ethnic minorities in 2006, when he stated that the Bosniaks were being discriminated against because the funds they received were disproportionate to the size of that ethnic minority.
On that occasion Tankovic also said that the Montenegrin and Macedonian minorities had been granted disproportionately high funds.
The leaders of the five associations gathering national minorities in Croatia on Tuesday sent a letter to Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks voicing dissatisfaction with the performance of their parliamentary representative.
Tankovic was elected in the 2003 parliamentary elections as representative of the Albanian, Bosniak, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Slovene national minorities and they are now dissatisfied with his performance, reads a statement sent by the five associations.
Other national minorities did not have any opportunity to contact their elected representative and inform him of their status. Bosniaks living in Croatia are not satisfied with his work either, because he limited his activities to the representation of the interests of his SDAH party, reads the statement.
Tankovic responded that he was nominated for the seat by the SDAH party and that he could not avoid that fact.
He also told his critics that new elections would be held soon and that they should run in them.