Mostar to Attract Tourists with Alternating Mayors?
Text by Ivo Scepanovic for Southeast European Times*
At the last vote in June, two candidates -- Croat Ljubo Beslic and Muslim Suad Hasandedic -- tied. Since neither took the majority vote, one resident suggested that the two exchange daily duties in the mayor's office, providing the city with not one, but two mayors.
"We could be a unique tourist attraction if we had a daily exchange of the city mayor," resident Marin Topic told Dnevni List. Topic's proposal that one day the Bosnian Croat candidate Beslic holds the mayor's office, and the next, the Bosnian Muslim, Hasandedic, may have traction with tourists.
Topic also suggested having guards -- like those at London's Buckingham Palace -- that would change during the daily ceremony accompanying the mayoral switch.
"We would have to ensure that a Muslim candidate would not be the mayor Fridays and a Croat Sundays for religious reasons," Topic said, adding that an ethnically diverse Mostar would boost the city's allure.
There are still no official reactions to Topic's proposal, which is not unusual, as the city is in an upheaval. Hundreds of city council officials and administrators are on strike, including many of Mostar's firefighters. The city's theatre is facing an economic meltdown due to lack of funding.
Mostar City Council Vice-President Murat Coric said that without city leadership, serious decisions will be delayed. "The mayor makes all suggestions, official decisions, and budget executions. The mayor is also responsible for nominating and reliving of duties," said Coric, emphasising the urgent need to fill the post.
Annually, around one million tourists visit Mostar, partly due to the nearby Catholic pilgrimage site, Medjugorje. The city of Mostar's prime attraction is the Old Bridge over the Neretva River. The bridge was originally built during the sixteenth-century Ottoman rule, destroyed in the 1993 conflict, and was later overhauled and rebuilt with funding from the World Bank, UNESCO, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the World Monuments Fund. Several countries--including Italy, the Netherlands and Croatia--also provided funds. Many world-renowned figures, including Britain's Prince Charles, attended the Old Bridge's opening ceremony in 2004.
*This text is courtesy of the Southeast European Times (SET), a web site sponsored by the US Department of Defense in support of UN Resolution 1244, designed to provide an international audience with a portal to a broad range of information about Southeastern Europe. It highlights movement toward greater regional stability and steps governments take toward integration into European institutions. SET also focuses on developments that hinder both terrorist activity and support for terrorism in the region.
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