first and only president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the end of the war, on 3 January 1997, he was appointed to the position of Co-chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving alongside Boro Bosić and Svetozar Mihajlović until 6 June 2000. At the 2000 parliamentary election, the SBiH formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party, a party led by former wartime deputy prime minister Zlatko Lagumdžija, to gain the majority and force the nationalist parties out of power. They gathered a coalition of many other small parties to create the "Alliance for Change". The coalition government facilitated the passage of the Election Law, which was not only an important step towards democracy, but also a prerequisite to Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the Council of Europe. The SDP BiH and the SBiH led the government until the October 2002 general election, when the public, dissatisfied at the pace of political reform, elected the nationalist parties back into power. Presidency (2006–2010) Silajdžić had a strong political comeback in the 2006 general election, by getting 62.8% of the votes and getting elected as the 5th Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2007, the International Court of Justice in the Hague acquitted Serbia of the charges of complicity in genocide brought against the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" by the Bosnian government. Silajdžić expressed disappointment at the court's ruling, but welcomed the fact that the court "ruled that Serbia and Montenegro had violated the Genocide Convention by not preventing or punishing the perpetrators of the genocide." Silajdžić was a member of the Bosnian delegation which negotiated the US-brokered Dayton Agreement. He continued stressing that the document was essential in ending the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but later saw it as an obstacle in reunifying the country. Making strong steps and claims in 2006 and 2007 towards canceling certain parts of the Dayton Agreement, Silajdžić directly opposed the constitution of the country, thus being a very controversial political figure, famous on the Bosniak and infamous on the Serbian side. His main goals were abolishing the existence of Republika Srpska, breaking certain relations with Serbia and reforming the country towards unity. During his four-year term as Presidency member, Silajdžić was backed by authorities and organizations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina that voiced dissatisfaction with the Dayton Agreement provisions and opposed the autonomy of