As part of the project „Building Democratic Participation in the City of Mostar“, the Mostar based news portal Pogled.ba interviewed the Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, and the President of the Mostar City Council, Salem Marić. In that regard Kordić and Marić presented their views on the Citizens’ Assembly and its significance to the City of Mostar as the first city in Bosnia and Herzegovina to organise such a process.

“Much to my delight many of the recommendations from the citizens on what we have to do and how they perceive the resolution of communal issues in Mostar are in line with the policies of the City Council and City Administration which from that point of view is a win-win situation”, stated Mario Kordić.

The President of the City Council, Salem Marić, confirmed that the recommendations from the citizens will be discussed at one of the next sessions of the City Council and that this „certainly can be considered as an example of good co-operation between the City Council and the citizens of the City of Mostar”.

It was likewise discussed what measures City of Mostar must undertake  to ensure monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly and what is the future of the deliberative process as a complementary mechanism to the work of local authorities in the City of Mostar. Mayor Kordić confirmed to pogled.ba that the City of Mostar will work on the organisation of a second edition of Citizens’ Assembly in Mostar and stressed the importance of citizens participation in the local decision-making process.

Watch the video here: