The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) said on Tuesday said it would not take part in the repeated local polls in Travnik, which are set by the Central Election Commission (SIP) for 11 April.

HDZ BiH insists that its mayoral candidate, Goran Pejakovic, should have become the mayor of that city in central Bosnia, after he finished as second in the mayoral election on 15 November, since the candidate of the Bosniak SDA party, Mirsad Peco, whose candidacy won the most ballots, died on the very day of those local polls.

The Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) reported on the day when the elections were held that its mayoral candidate in Travnik, the 62-year-old doctor Peco, had died in the local hospital from the complications of Covid-19 earlier that day.

HDZ BiH says that the mayoral candidate who was the runner-up in the mayoral race should have taken office.

The party accuses the SIP of failing to protect the legality of the 15 November elections and of having done many omissions.

The head of the HDZ BiH branch in Travnik, Bojan Domic, accuses the SIP of deciding on organising the repeat of the local elections only to prevent a Croat from becoming the mayor of Travnik.

Although the SDA candidate Peco died on the very day of the elections, the SIP declared him the winner and later ordered the repeat of the polls.