Recently, the committee of the SDP branch in Vukovar unanimously supported Sabo as the party’s mayoral candidate in that eastern Croatian city, thus defying the SDP leadership’s suggestion that Sabo should not be nominated for that candidacy.
After the SDP main committee earlier in the day decided by a majority vote to oust Sabo from the party, Sabo responded that the party leader Peđa Grbin disrespected the will of grassroot members in the party’s organisations at local levels. He underscored that 90% of the members in the SDP branch in Vukovar had supported his mayoral candidacy.
Sabo accused Grbin of trying to remove all who had not voted for his candidacy as the party leader during the SDP intra-party election in October 2020.
Grbin said earlier in the day that the expulsion of Sabo was not directed against him personally.
The leadership’s decision was prompted by Sabo’s recent threat to reactivate his term as a member of the party’s presidency.
These developments ensued after the Vukovar party branch committee’s unanimous decision to support Sabo as the SDP mayoral candidate in May’s local elections. The leadership recommended against Sabo’s nomination as he had been convicted of corruption for trying to bribe a local councillor during his mayoral term. Apart from having served six months in prison, which enables rehabilitation under the law, Sabo is also facing charges of abuse of office and powers for allegedly embezzling funds intended for summer holidays for Vukovar children.
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