The SDA's vice president and member of the state parliament's lower house, Semsudin Mehmedovic, has told Oslobodjenje daily that his three colleagues making up the majority in the Bosniak group in the state parliament's upper house will not vote on a possible replacement of Defence Minister Muhamed Ibrahimovic and Security Minister Sadik Ahmetovic, preventing the quorum necessary for adopting a decision to that effect.
Council of Ministers Chairman Vjekoslav Bevanda has requested the state parliament to decide on the replacement of Ibrahimovic and Ahmetovic in the wake of an agreement on the formation of a new ruling majority from which the SDA would be left out.
The request has been put on the agenda of a lower house session called for July 5 and it is certain that the votes of the parties making up the new parliamentary majority will be enough for it to pass.
The decision then needs to be upheld by the upper house which is comprised of five deputies from each of the three constituent peoples. The decisions of this house are valid only if adopted at sessions attended by at least three deputies of each constituent people. The Bosniak parliamentary group comprises three SDA and two SDP deputies.
Mehmedovic has said the SDA deputies in the upper house will participate in sessions until the decision on the replacement of two ministers and one deputy minister from its ranks is put on the agenda, adding that if the decision is forcibly put on the agenda, the SDA deputies will walk out.
The president of the HDZ BiH parliamentary group, Mato Franjicevic, has said the replacements could drag on until the autumn and that the SDA'a strategy could turn out to be "radical and very dangerous."
Minister Amhetovic, the SDA's vice president, has dismissed that, saying in Nezavisne Novine daily that his party only wants to protect the rule of law.
If the decisions on the replacement of the SDA ministers are not carried out in July, the next opportunity will come in September, because parliament is in recess during August.
It has also been announced that the SDA will ask the Federation entity's Constitutional Court to rule if the replacement of the Federation parliament's leadership, which the SDP carried out on Tuesday in cooperation with the two HDZ parties, is constitutional and legal.
The SDA's speaker of the Federation's lower house, Denis Zvizdic, who was replaced yesterday, has said he will not recognise the decision before the Constitutional Court's ruling.
Federation President Zivko Budimir, whom the SDP and its new coalition partners want to replace because of his refusal to sign a decision on the replacement of the Federation ministers from the SDA and the Party of Rights (HSP), has said he is willing to dissolve the Federation parliament and call new elections if a reasonable solution to the current political crisis is not found.
Also today, the HSP condemned Zvizdic's replacement.