Ivo Komšić | Mayor of Sarajevo

Ivo Komšić was born in Kiseljak, Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 16th, 1948. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy and sociology at Sarajevo Philosophy Faculty. He obtained a Master’s degree in 1977, and a PhD degree in 1985.

Ivo Komšić worked as a high school teacher of philosophy and sociology until 1977, when he went on to work as an assistant professor of sociology at Sarajevo Faculty of Mechanical Engineering until 1979. Shortly after he began working at the Philosophy Faculty as an assistant lecturer of Sociology of Labor and Politics. He was elected assistant professor in 1986, associate professor in 1990 and he became full professor in 2000.

In 1992, he served temporarily at the Ministry of Defence as a volunteer. In 1993 he founded the Croatian Peasant Party, which created an alternative Croat policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, opting for preservation of unified Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. By early November 1993, following the dismantling of RBiH Presidency, he became a member of RBiH Presidency based on the result of 1990 elections. Professor Komšić was the author of the new BiH Constitution based on federation of cantons, with precisely determined number of Cantons, their respective territories and numbers of inhabitants.

Prof. Komšić is a renowned researcher and lecturer at the University of Sarajevo, and a very active figure in public and political life. From 2000 to 2002 he served as chairman of the House of People at BiH Federal Parliament. From 2006 to 2008 he was a delegate at the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton and House of Peoples at the BiH Federal Parliament. He was elected the Mayor of Sarajevo in 2013.