DODIK: SRPSKA WILL NOT BACK CHANGING CONSTITUTION ON SERB PRESIDENCY MEMBER ELECTION

MOSTAR, JULY 13 /SRNA/ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik has stated in Mostar today that representatives of Republika Srpska will not agree to amend the Constitution with regard to the election of the Serb member of the BiH Presidency.

"In Republika Srpska, we see no reason to discuss any method other than the direct election of the Serb member of the Presidency, and that is the position we have maintained for the past 15 years," Dodik said at the news conference following the meeting between delegations of the SNSD and HDZ BiH. Speaking about BiH's electoral process, Dodik said legislation drafted by an individual would only create further confusion. "From what I hear, the people at the Central Election Commission are preparing something that will only confuse voters. They want to put candidates' names on the ballot together with numbers and people are expected to remember and count those numbers," Dodik said. Adding that in normal democratic countries, leaders of parliamentary political parties negotiate the electoral rules, whereas in BiH they are imposed by others, Dodik noted that Christian Schmidt left behind a great deal of mess that will have to be cleaned up. He also expressed confidence ahead of the upcoming elections. "We are entering these elections with optimism. I believe we are going into them as a party that will achieve one of the best election results we have ever recorded at any level," Dodik concluded. Dodik said the HDZ, as the political representative of the Croat people, was the relevant interlocutor on issues concerning Croat political positions and that the SNSD regarded its views as reflecting those of the Croat people in BiH. "We believe the Croat people have been humiliated and marginalized by the Bosniak political leadership over the election of the Croat member of the Presidency, and we will support any initiative to resolve that issue in the interest of the Croat constituent people and the Catholic community," Dodik said. He added that the only proper solution would be to establish a separate Croat electoral constituency for the election of the Croat member of the Presidency. According to Dodik, such a solution would preserve the constitutional principle of constituent status enjoyed by the Croat people. He also said BiH could function under the new circumstances only in accordance with the Constitution, while anything outside the constitutional framework was unacceptable to the SNSD and, he believed, to other representatives from Republika Srpska as well. Dodik assessed that, without the engagement of the SNSD and the HDZ on these issues, BiH would have collapsed long ago, describing the country as divided and weakened on every level. He reminded that neither the Constitution of BiH nor the Dayton Peace Accords refers to Bosniaks as a majority people, but instead recognizes three constituent peoples - Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks. "The Constitution does not assign numbers to those peoples; it defines their rights. Bosniak politicians are quietly but very pragmatically trying to act as though Croats are less important and Serbs occupy some third position," Dodik said insisting that Bosniaks are not a majority people but have equal rights and obligations with Croats and Serbs under the Constitution. Dodik further argued that the international community had acted unconstitutionally in BiH and claimed that the Constitutional Court of BiH was itself operating outside the Constitution because it currently had seven instead of the prescribed nine judges. "It will not have nine judges until the law on the Constitutional Court is changed. The three foreign judges and two Bosniak judges have served only to legitimiez or attempt to legitimize, the international interference carried out through the so-called High Representative and certain embassies," Dodik said calling for sovereignty to be returned to the Serb, Croat and Bosniak peoples. Stressing that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not function unless it returned to the constitutional framework, Dodik said the SNSD and HDZ delegations had also discussed matters before the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Welcoming the adoption of the state budget, he said two or three months had been lost because of Bosniak member of the Presidency Denis Bećirović, who, he claimed, had then attempted to shift the blame onto others.