The presidency of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has decided to dissolve the party's organisations in Zagreb and Vukovar, SDP leader Pedja Grbin announced at a press conference after a presidency meeting on Thursday evening.

The SDP leadership has asked the party’s Vukovar branch not to support former mayor Zeljko Sabo as a mayoral candidate in May’s local elections because Sabo had been convicted of corruption for trying to bribe a local councillor.

“The SDP in Vukovar ignored this recommendation, so the presidency today adopted the only possible decision – to dissolve the SDP’s Vukovar town organisation,” Grbin said, adding that the SDP had zero tolerance to corruption.

The proposal was supported with 10 votes in favour, one against and two abstentions.

Biljana Gaca, a member of the presidency and president of the SDP Youth Forum, was appointed commissioner for Vukovar. She will meet with potential coalition partners and decide on a candidate for mayor.

Grbin said that the presidency had proposed that the party’s main committee dissolve the Zagreb organisation as well after the head of the Zagreb SDP, Gordan Maras, announced that he would not be running for mayor. The proposal was backed by a 12-3 vote, and Davor Terzic, chairman of the Tresnjevka South committee, was appointed commissioner.

Sabo: I’m surprised

Sabo told state agency Hina he was surprised by the presidency’s decision and would appeal to the main committee and statutory commission to prove that it was a wrong decision.

His candidacy for mayor received unanimous support at a meeting of the SDP Vukovar committee on Wednesday. Although he has been legally rehabilitated, he is being faulted for the guilty verdict and the fact that several criminal proceedings against him are in progress.

Sabo said that a poll had been conducted among the party’s 408 members in Vukovar and that 371 of them, or 91 percent, supported him with their signatures.

Asked if he was going to resign from the SDP if the situation remained as it was and run in the local election as an independent candidate, he replied in the negative, Hina reported.