The ruling coalition in Republika Srpska (RS) will hold early elections for the president of that entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its joint candidate for president of RS will be Siniša Karan, currently the Minister in the RS Government for Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society.
"We are going to the elections and our joint candidate will be Siniša Karan," said Milorad Dodik, president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), at a press conference in Banja Luka after a meeting of the presidents of the ruling coalition parties.
He accused the RS opposition of holding early presidential elections scheduled by the BIH Central Election Commission for November 23rd because it did not want to boycott the elections, nor did it agree to a government of national unity, although the ruling coalition was ready to offer the opposition bloc the prime minister's position in that government.
"We were ready to physically prevent these elections from taking place. No one in the RS asked for these elections, not even the opposition. These elections were imposed by Muslims together with foreigners. This is a showdown between Muslims and us Christians, this is a showdown that abused the judiciary," the SNSD leader said.
Dodik explained that the ruling coalition in RS decided to hold early presidential elections in order to preserve stability in that entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"It was a mere and forced adjustment, where I had to put my ego aside and take care of the stability of RS," he said.
According to him, the ruling coalition's failure to participate in the elections would enable the victory of an opposition candidate who could then dissolve the National Assembly and the RS Government, which would destabilize RS and put it in a "completely different position than the one it is in today."
He stated that he would continue to represent the President of the RS until the end of his term, that is, until the regular general elections in 2026, adding that he was convinced that the ruling coalition's candidate, Siniša Karan, would win, to whom he would "only distribute certain powers."
Disparaging opposition presidential candidate Branko Blanusa, he emphasized that after the early elections, RS will have two presidents, "Milorad Dodik and Sinisa Karan."
Dodik said he was proud that Serbia, Russia and Hungary still consider him the president of RS.
He said that a referendum will also be held in the RS, in which citizens will vote on "whether they accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner Kristijan Šmit and the unconstitutional verdicts of the Court of BiH against the President of the RS, as well as the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH to revoke the mandate of the President of the RS."
Dodik said that a session of the RS National Assembly would be held on the date of the referendum, which was originally scheduled for September 25, given that the Bosniak caucus in the RS institutions had initiated mechanisms to protect vital national interests regarding the issue.
According to him, it was only on Wednesday that the decision of the Court of Republika Srpska arrived on the appeal of Bosniak political structures that had been waiting until the last day to file an appeal.
"We are patient and determined to hold the referendum. If they continue with the complaints, we will probably hold the referendum on January 9," Dodik said.
Dodik assessed that the best solution is for "BiH to disappear as a state", and that, if BiH survives, Croats should be given a third entity, but within the Federation of BiH, and he stressed that RS "will one day be an independent state".
The ruling coalition's candidate for president of the RS, Siniša Karan, stated that he "feels great honor and pride in being selected to be a candidate in the upcoming early elections."
He added that he is also sad because RS "has to elect a president again, and it has a president, Milorad Dodik."
The CEC called early elections for the president of the RS on November 23 after it stripped Dodik of his presidential mandate based on a final verdict by the Court of BiH, which sentenced him to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding public office for failing to implement the High Representative's decisions.
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