SAVIĆ: REFERENDUM IS THE ULTIMATE LINE OF DEFENSE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 19 /SRNA/ – Political scientist Vojislav Savić stated that a referendum is the ultimate line of defense of popular sovereignty, stressing that the vast majority of people in Republika Srpska, regardless of whether they support the government or the opposition, do not want such a BiH.

"If the people in Sarajevo, led by /Christian/ Schmidt and his accompanying political and para-political satellites, have forgotten the election results, I think it's not a bad idea to remind them what the choice of the citizens of Republika Srpska was and whether anything has changed in the meantime – which I doubt," Savić told SRNA. He believes that it is unquestionable that the vast majority of people in Republika Srpska do not want imposed high representatives, do not want the imposition of will, nor legal and political violence against their neighbors and fellow citizens. "It is only a matter of time when this will be proven," Savić pointed out. He said that early elections could only further heat up the political atmosphere, and considered the outcome of such an adventure questionable unless there is a clear consensus among the political, academic, and informed public regarding it. "Right now, the hardest thing is to be patient and wait, but I think that is the only solution. Alongside internal political and social consolidation, we must also exert active diplomatic pressure so that this issue reaches as many addresses as possible, where ways of defending the sovereignty and competences of Republika Srpska can then be further developed," Savić emphasized. When it comes to responding to the current political challenge, Savić said that, in addition to using all available legal remedies, the battle must also be waged on a new front. He noted that the first step should be to try by all possible means, before domestic and international courts, to contest the purely politically staged process against President Milorad Dodik, based on the illegal decisions of an illegal high representative, along with the distorted mandate of the Central Election Commission. "The second front is political: since the verdict is not only a legal but also a political fact, the front must be built around the announced referendum and the use of other political and democratic means in order to overcome the crisis and preserve what tens of thousands of people gave their lives for in the past war. We do not have the luxury of playing with such a terrible and exalted sacrifice of this people, thanks to which we have what we have today," Savić stressed.