Ljubo Bešlić

Ljubo Bešlić (27 July 1958 – 3 September 2021) was a Bosnian Croat politician who served as the 33rd mayor of Mostar from 2004 to 2021. He was a member of the Croatian Democratic Union.

Early life and career Bešlić was born on 27 July 1958, in Mostar, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia. He graduated in 1982 from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mostar. Bešlić then worked as a professor at the High School of Mechanical Engineering in Mostar, and then at the printing house "Rade Bitanga" of Mostar as the head of the maintenance service. He was actively involved in handball (1972–1990) at the Velež Mostar Handball Club.

From 1992 to 1995, Bešlić served in the Croatian Defence Council during the Bosnian War. In the absence of a legal basis, since the Parliament had not acted to replace such legislation, local elections could not take place in Mostar in 2012 and 2016. In the absence of a city council, Bešlić remained as acting mayor for eight additional years, during which he affirmed that he considered resigning multiple times, also due to his deteriorating health. During this time, he shared the administrative duties with Izet Šahović, head of Mostar's Finance Department, a bureaucrat and member of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

In October 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a case on the absence of electoral rights for the residents of Mostar. In July 2020, the Bosnian Parliament amended the electoral law to allow for local elections in Mostar to be held in December 2020. Bešlić, due to his health issues (he was in need of a heart transplant) did not run as candidate councilor. He was succeeded as mayor by fellow HDZ BiH member Mario Kordić on 15 February 2021, marking the end of Bešlić's seventeen-year mayorship.

Personal life Bešlić was married to Dubravka Bešlić, with whom he had three children. He died on 3 September 2021, in Zagreb from a heart transplant complication. He was 63.