KOVAČEVIĆ: CONSTITUTION IS CLEAR, THE PEOPLE ELECTED AND DODIK REMAINS PRESIDENT

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 12 /SRNA/ – Milorad Dodik remains the President of Republika Srpska because it is the will of the people who elected him in free and democratic elections, said today the Serb delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Radovan Kovačević.

Kovačević stated that discussions are underway on the next steps and that the process is moving towards first having the National Assembly declare whether what is being done against Republika Srpska – not against Dodik – is acceptable to that highest legislative body and to the deputies. “A process was conducted here against someone who is the President of Republika Srpska because he was fulfilling his constitutionally prescribed duties as President of the Republic. Even in the verdict and in the closing statement of the Prosecutor’s Office, it was written that he acted in accordance with the Constitution of Republika Srpska. That is the first step – for the National Assembly of Republika Srpska to say whether this is acceptable to them,” Kovačević explained. He said the second step is for the citizens of Republika Srpska, who elected their President, who under the Constitution represents state unity, to express their position. “Is it acceptable to them that, in an extra-constitutional and anti-Dayton political process, someone interrupts the mandate of the President they elected? Here we will decide whether we are Republika Srpska or not. Whether we stand for having our rights, or whether anyone who wishes can trample on us,” Kovačević said. He stated that he will stand on the side that says Republika Srpska exists, that it has rights guaranteed by an international agreement such as the Dayton Agreement, and that those rights will be defended. “These rights mean that we can elect our representatives ourselves in democratic and free elections, and that they should do their job in accordance with the Constitution, and that no one can persecute them or conduct fabricated political processes outside the Constitution just because they respected Republika Srpska, its citizens, and its Constitution,” Kovačević emphasized. Kovačević reminded that a political process was conducted against the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and that Srpska will not agree to act contrary to the Constitution in this regard. “I think we have been clear from the start, in our first reactions when these verdicts were pronounced in this political process. There was no legal process here for us to even speak about legal remedies or responses to verdicts of judicial institutions. These were political processes with only one goal – to remove someone whom the Serb people and the citizens of Republika Srpska elected to represent them,” Kovačević told Newsmax Balkans. He also noted that the Constitution of BiH stipulates that only the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH can adopt and amend laws, yet a foreigner without any mandate appeared and changed the law so that anyone who does not comply with his decisions would go to prison. “This is so obvious that no one would accept it – especially not a strong, democratically aware Republika Srpska,” Kovačević concluded.