Željko Komšić

Željko Komšić
President of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 July 2011
Prime Minister	Nikola Špirić Vjekoslav Bevanda
Preceded by	Nebojša Radmanović
In office 6 July 2009 – 6 March 2010
Prime Minister	Nikola Špirić
Preceded by	Nebojša Radmanović
Succeeded by	Haris Silajdžić
In office 6 July 2007 – 7 March 2008
Prime Minister	Nikola Špirić
Preceded by	Nebojša Radmanović
Succeeded by	Haris Silajdžić
Croat Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 November 2006
Preceded by	Ivo Miro Jović
Personal details
Born	20 January 1964 (1964-01-20) Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Sabina Komšić
Alma mater	University of Sarajevo Georgetown University
Religion	Agnostic

Željko Komšić (Bosnian pronunciation: [ʒeʎko komʃitɕ]) (born 20 January 1964) is a politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 1 October 2006, he was elected as the ethnic Croat representative to a four-year term as the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Early life and the war in Bosnia

Komšić has a law degree from University of Sarajevo and he also studied at Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is a lawyer by profession. During the Bosnian war, he served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and received the Golden Lily — the highest military decoration awarded by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian government.

Political career

After the war, Komšić embarked on a political career as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP-BiH). He was a councilman of the municipality of Novo Sarajevo and in the city council of Sarajevo, before being elected the head of the municipal government of Novo Sarajevo in 2000. He then also served as the deputy mayor of Sarajevo for two years. When the "Alliance for Democratic Change" coalition came to power in 1998, Komšić was named the ambassador to the now defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. He resigned this commission after the election in 2002 when SDP went back into opposition. He is one of the three vice-presidents of the Social Democratic Party.^{[citation needed]}

2006 general election

Komšić was SDP's candidate for the Croatian seat in the Presidency in the Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 2006. He received 97,267 votes^{[citation needed]} or 41% of the vote mostly from Bosniaks people,^{[citation needed]} ahead of Ivo Miro Jović (25%), Božo Ljubić (18%) and Mladen Ivanković-Lijanović (9%) for which Croats did vote.^{[citation needed]} He was sworn into office on 1 October 2006. His victory was widely attributed to a split in the HDZ-BiH party, enabling the SDP to win a majority of the Bosniaks votes.^{[citation needed]}

Many ethnic Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina don't support Komšić because he is elected by the votes of Bosniaks,^{[citation needed]} but instead support the HDZ.^{[citation needed]} Ethnically Croatian and raised Roman Catholic but politically as Bosniaks, Komšić refers to the Bosnian language (rather than Croatian)^{[citation needed]} as his own, and does not hold dual citizenship (both BiH and Croatian) as many others do, although his wife, Sabina, an ethnic Bosniak, reportedly does.^{[citation needed]} The HDZ has criticized him since his election;^{[citation needed]} Komšić is quite popular in Bosniak circles.

Rotating Chairman (2009)

On 7 July 2009, Komšić became Chair of the Rotating Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He filled the role for eight months.

External links

• Official web site of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency (Bosnian)
• Official web site of Željko Komšić (Bosnian)

Political offices
Preceded by Ivo Miro Jović	Croat Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2006–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Nebojša Radmanović	President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007–2008	Succeeded by Haris Silajdžić
	President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2009–2010
	President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011–present	Incumbent