Željko Komšić (Croatian pronunciation: [ˈʒɛːʎkɔ ˈkɔmʃitɕ]; born 20 January 1964) is a Bosnian Croat politician serving as the 6th and current Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2018, having served from 2006 to 2014 as well. Previously, he was a member of the national House of Representatives from 2014 to 2018. Born in 1964, Komšić earned a degree in law from the University of Sarajevo in 1988, and later attended a specialization program at Georgetown University. He served in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, and was awarded with the Order of the Golden Lily. Following the war, Komšić worked at the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees, before being elected municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo in 2000. He then served as the Bosnian ambassador to FR Yugoslavia. In the 2006 general election, Komšić successfully ran for a seat in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Croat member. He was re-elected to the office in the 2010 election. Komšić was a prominent figure of the Social Democratic Party, until he left it in 2012 to establish the Democratic Front a year later. Following the end of his term in the Presidency, he was elected to the national House of Representatives in the 2014 election. Komšić was elected to the Presidency for a third term in the 2018 general election. He was re-elected for a fourth term in the 2022 general election, and has since then become the longest-serving Presidency member overall. He is also the only one to have served more than two terms. Although elected as the Croat member of Bosnia’s Presidency, Komšić is considered by many Bosnian Croats to be an illegitimate representative, as he was elected largely by Bosniak voters in the Federation, where voters can choose both the Bosniak and Croat members. As a result, his support among Croats has remained very low throughout his term.
Early life and education Komšić was born on 20 January 1964 in Sarajevo to a Bosnian Croat father, Marko Komšić from Kiseljak, and Bosnian Serb mother, Danica Stanić (1941 – 1 August 1992) from Doboj. He has a sister. During the siege of Sarajevo, his mother was killed by a sniper from the Army of Republika Srpska while in her apartment, an event often seen as a turning point in his life. At the time, Komšić was serving in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he later received the Order of the Golden Lily for military merit. He earned a law degree from the University of Sarajevo’s Faculty of Law in 1988 and also attended Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., where he participated in the Georgetown Leadership Seminar in 2003. From 1996 to 1998, Komšić worked at the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees.
Early political career After the war, Komšić began his political career as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP BiH). From 1998 to 2000, he served as president of the Sarajevo City Council and was also a councilman in the Novo Sarajevo municipality. He later served as mayor of Novo Sarajevo until 2001. After the 2000 parliamentary election, when the "Alliance for Democratic Change" came to power, Komšić was appointed ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. He resigned from this post after the 2002 general election, when the SDP BiH returned to opposition. From 2003 to 2004, he served as deputy to Sarajevo mayor Muhidin Hamamdžić, and in the 2004 municipal elections he was re-elected as mayor of Novo Sarajevo.
First presidency (2006–2014)
2006 general election
Komšić was the SDP BiH candidate for the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2006 general election. He won 116,062 votes (39.6%), ahead of Ivo Miro Jović (26.1%), Božo Ljubić (18.2%) and other candidates. He was sworn into office on 6 November 2006. His victory is often attributed to divisions within the HDZ BiH bloc, which split the Croat vote, while he also received significant support from Bosniak voters. As a result, many Bosnian Croats viewed him as an illegitimate representative, arguing he was elected largely without Croat backing. Croat political leaders and some Catholic Church figures called on him to step down, claiming the result undermined the intended system of ethnic representation, but legal challenges did not overturn the outcome. Even Haris Silajdžić stated that Komšić’s election was unfair and could alienate Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2010 general election
In the 2010 general election, Komšić was re-elected as the Croat member of the Presidency, nearly tripling his vote total to 337,065 (60.6%), ahead of Borjana Krišto (19.7%) and others. His victory was strongly contested by Croat representatives, who argued that the electoral system allows Bosniak-majority voters in the Federation to effectively decide the Croat member of the Presidency. Komšić did not win in any Croat-majority municipality, with most of his support coming from Bosniak-majority areas. This reinforced claims that he lacked legitimacy among Croats and strengthened calls for a separate Croat federal unit.
Tenure
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