KARAN: RETURN OF ORIGINAL COMPETENCES - RETURN TO LAW

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 17 /SRNA/ - The newly elected President of Republika Srpska Siniša Karan stated that Republika Srpska will start systematical process considering balancing and returning its original competences, emphasizing that it is not a return to the past, but a return to law - the only possible formula according to which BiH can survive.

After taking the solemn oath in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, Karan emphasized that he will serve the constitutionality, peace, freedom and dignity of Srpska and every person who lives in it, and that Srpska remains on the path of sovereign politics, the policy of preserving the Dayton Peace Agreement and defending its constitutional position. Karan said that anything imposed outside the Dayton Agreement - cannot be the foundation of the country because it has no legitimacy of its own. "The Dayton independence of Republika Srpska is a constitutional fact because Srpska is one of the two equal entities that make up BiH and is the bearer of broad constitutional competences that are protected by entity voting, veto and consensus mechanisms," explained Karan. He reminded that internal sovereignty in the Dayton sense belongs to the entities, while external sovereignty is exercised through joint institutions within the limits of competence prescribed by the Constitution. Karan said that in the past decades, that balance was disturbed by the transfer of competences to the BiH level through the decisions of high representatives, and constitutional court interpretations of unconstitutional judicial institutions. "The Constitution cannot be changed by decree, nor can an international treaty be changed by a unilateral act. There is only one way - an agreement within BiH and a constitutional procedure, with full respect for the equality of constituent elements," Karan pointed out. He pointed out that the recently held early elections for the president of Republika Srpska were not the will and desire of the Serb people. "The people were invited to reassert their will, which they had the opportunity to reassert several times," Karan told reporters in Banja Luka. He said that the reason that forced the way to early elections did not arise in Republika Srpska, but in an attempt to override the political will of the people by imposing the norm of a criminal offense that did not pass the democratic procedure, nor was it approved by the competent legislative body. "It is a hitherto unprecedented practice in the world that an unelected foreigner intervenes in the criminal legislation of a foreign country, and then that intervention is used as a basis for the political elimination of a democratically elected president," explained Karan. He pointed out that this practice is not a path to stability in BiH, but a path to legal uncertainty, undermining the legitimacy of institutions and creating a dangerous precedent. "Republika Srpska does not accept such an anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional approach either as a matter of political will, or as a matter of legal nature," emphasized Karan. He said that the mandate entrusted by the people to Milorad Dodik was a mandate for the sovereign and state-building policy of Republika Srpska, stressing that it was not a policy of conflict - but a policy of constitutionality to respect what was signed and guaranteed by the international treaty, the Dayton Peace Agreement. Karan reminded that the principles that are an integral part of the Constitution of BiH determined the basic guidelines for the two entities, the territorial ratio of 49:51 percent and the broad competences of the entities and the limited competences of the common level of government at the level of BiH. "The constitutional identity of BiH is Daytonian in form, and Geneva and New York in its essence, and it constitutes a complex state structure, consociative democracy, equality of two entities, constitutiveness of three peoples and consensus as a rule, not as an exception", Karan stated and emphasized that these principles are not a burden on BiH, but a condition for peace and stability. He said that the Dayton BiH was not created so that one would win over the other, but that everyone would live within a framework that guarantees equality for all. "That is why our goal is clear - the reaffirmation of the constitutional identity of BiH. We don't ask for anything that belongs to others, nor do we destroy anything that was agreed upon," said Karan.