Bakir Izetbegović

Bakir Izetbegović
Bosniak Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Elect
Assuming office 6 November 2010
Succeeding	Haris Silajdžić
Personal details
Born	(1956-06-28) 28 June 1956 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Political party	Party of Democratic Action

Bakir Izetbegović (born 28 June, 1956) is a Bosnian politician. Izetbegović is a member of the Party of Democratic Action and son of the late Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegović. In 2010, he was elected to be the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Career

Izetbegović graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Sarajevo in 1981. From 1982 until 1992 he worked as a consultant at an architectural consulting firm. He entered politics in 2000 and after serving in two regional assemblies was elected to the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006. In May 2009, he was defeated in an inter party election when he challenged the incumbent president of the Party of Democratic Action for leadership.

Election

On October 3, 2010 Izetbegović was elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Bosniak member. Izetbegović came in first in a field of nine candidates with 35% of the vote. The runner up, Fahrudin Radončić won 31% of the vote while incumbent Haris Silajdžić won 25 %. Six other candidates split the remaining 9% of the votes cast.

Controversy

In 2010, Izetbegović ensured that the state owned telecommunications company BH Telecom bought an unfinished office building in Sarajevo for 34 million KM (17.4 million euros) from the OKI company. The buildings previous owners were long time supporters of the Party of Democratic Action who could not sell the building for 20 million KM. [1]