KOVAČEVIĆ: WE WILL APPEAL CEC DECISION, EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 25 /SRNA/ – The SNSD will appeal the decision of the Central Election Commission /CEC/ of BiH to annul the early election for President of Republika Srpska at 136 polling stations, even though it is known that the appeal will not be upheld, since no decision in favor of Republika Srpska has ever been adopted either by the CEC or by the Court or the Constitutional Court of BiH, SNSD spokesperson Radovan Kovačević has said.

Kovačević stressed that these are institutions being used as political tools against Republika Srpska. "Instead of respecting the choice of the Serb people, Sarajevo wants to impose who will be President of Republika Srpska," Kovačević told RTRS. He reminded that the citizens of Srpska elected Milorad Dodik as President for a four-year term, but that an unelected foreigner with no mandate in BiH, Christian Schmidt, imposed a law and put Dodik in a position to choose between the will of an occupying authority and the will of the people of Republika Srpska, as enshrined in the Constitution, under which the President signs laws into force. "Milorad Dodik chose Republika Srpska, and because of that Christian Schmidt amended the Criminal Code, forced the Court and Prosecutor's Office to prosecute Dodik, and ultimately stripped him of the mandate given by the people. In that way, the electoral will of the Serb people and the citizens of Republika Srpska was annulled," stressed Kovačević, who also serves a Serb delegate in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. He added that early elections were then held for President of Republika Srpska, in which SNSD candidate Siniša Karan won, only for the elections to be annulled at polling stations where Karan had prevailed. "If they wanted to be fair and said there were certain irregularities, they could have annulled all the elections. But no, they left all the votes for the opposition candidate they favor, and annulled the votes for the candidate who won and whom the people of Republika Srpska elected," Kovačević said. He noted that elections were annulled at 53 polling stations in Zvornik, where Karan won by more than 6,000 votes, then at 31 polling stations in Doboj, where the margin was 10,000 votes, as well as in Laktaši, where the opposition has never won. "The margin can only grow, but this is the way they are trying to resolve these elections - by annulling the will of the Serb people once again," Kovačević emphasized.