Sanja Vulić joined the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) as a teenager and was first elected to the Doboj Assembly in 2012. According to the asset declaration she submitted to the Central Election Commission at the time, she had no property.
Ten years later, at the start of her second term in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliamentary Assembly, she declared ownership of two flats in Doboj and Banja Luka, valued at a combined 246,000 BAM.
Her biography lists her as a qualified primary school teacher, though it does not state where she earned her degree. In 2007, she enrolled in a teaching programme at the University of Banja Luka’s Faculty of Philosophy, in the Derventa branch. The University of Banja Luka confirmed to journalists that she did not graduate from the institution.
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According to the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, she submitted a higher education diploma upon taking office, but refused to provide a copy or disclose the issuing institution.
Vulić has consistently declined to speak with journalists from the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN) about her academic background, property holdings, or political career.
Loyalty to the SNSD President and safe terms
Sanja Vulić was born in Sarajevo in 1988. She spent her first seven years in her hometown before moving to Doboj with her parents after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. In May 2005, at the age of 17, she joined the SNSD party.
In an interview on the RTRS show Telering seven years later, she stated that she entered politics “seeking stability and opportunities to realise her ideas”.
On that occasion, she described herself as a qualified primary school teacher, though she never worked in the field, and said journalism had been her true passion. For elected officials, formal education is not a prerequisite for employment or fulfilling parliamentary duties.
CIN journalists discovered that Sanja Vulić enrolled in the first semester of the Teacher Education programme at the Banja Luka University Faculty of Philosophy in 2007 as a full-time student.
“She last updated her student status in the 2010/2011 academic year by enrolling in the third-year renewal programme. She did not obtain a degree from the University of Banja Luka’s Faculty of Philosophy,” confirmed the institution.
Journalists sent inquiries to ten universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina offering Teacher Education programmes. The institutions that responded, confirming they had no record of Vulić, included: Pedagogical Faculties in Bijeljina, Faculties of Philosophy in Tuzla and Zenica, Faculty of Pedagogy in Bihać, and Faculties of the Džemal Bijedić University. The Faculty of Pedagogy in Sarajevo and the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Educational Sciences of the Mostar University stated they couldn’t verify her student status due to insufficient data. Private institutions like the Independent University of Banja Luka, the Commerce Academy in Brčko, and the Faculty of Education of the University of Travnik also responded to the inquiry.
When asked about her qualification in Parliament, Vulić requested police protection of the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Authorities: “I said I won’t talk. Marko, react! This person is harassing me!”
Vulić began her political career in 2012 when she was elected to the Doboj City Assembly with 4,141 votes.
In the asset declaration she submitted to the Central Election Commission of BiH, she reported earning a salary of 800 BAM in 2011 from the “Saint Apostle Luke” Hospital in Doboj, and 2,000 BAM from non-governmental organisations.
By 2015, her monthly salary in the Doboj City Assembly had risen to 1,833 BAM. In the asset declaration she submitted at the beginning of her second term in 2016, she reported owning a 44-square-meter apartment in Doboj and a 100,000 BAM loan from Sberbank. During this term, she served as president of the Doboj City Assembly.
She was re-elected to the same position but soon moved to the State Parliament.
Before that, Vulić ambitiously entered high politics by running in the 2018 general elections. Although she didn’t win a seat in the Parliament, she gained an opportunity when her Party colleague, Vojin Mitrović, vacated his position after being appointed Minister of Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In early 2020, as the second candidate on the list with 15,578 votes, she automatically got the opportunity to demonstrate her loyalty to party leader Milorad Dodik.
In the asset declaration she submitted to the CEC in 2022, when starting her second term in Parliament, she listed an apartment in Banja Luka (66.76 square meters, valued at 176,000 BAM), in addition to her property in Doboj. She also declared a debt of 225,000 BAM with ATOS Bank. She replaced her Peugeot with a more expensive car, valued at 10,000 BAM in the most recent asset declaration.
You can find more details about her career and assets in CIN’s Politicians’ Assets database, a unique repository of data on the careers, education, assets, legal proceedings, and party affiliations of about 230 politicians and public officials.
