KOVAČEVIĆ: PEOPLE ELECTED PRESIDENT, CEC WILL NOT SUCCEED IN DESTABILIZING SRPSKA

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 9 /SRNA/ – The people of Republika Srpska elected their president in the elections, and what the Central Election Commission /CEC/ of BiH is doing with the vote recount is a charade aimed at destabilizing Srpska, but they will not succeed, SNSD spokesman Radovan Kovačević said.

"The CEC is unable to count barely 400,000 votes in 22 days. In normal countries, people count hundreds of millions of votes in a single day and have final results, while here we wait 20 days for them to tell us what we knew on day one," Kovačević stated. He stressed that it is evident that the CEC members are nothing more than a political weapons used for additional attacks on Republika Srpska and for its destabilization. "We hear them saying that the presidents of polling stations, whom they appointed, had no complaints regarding the regularity of the elections. We hear that nearly 4,500 observers from all political parties, both government and opposition, as well as numerous NGOs, had almost no complaints. There were minor objections at only 10 polling stations in the whole of Srpska," Kovačević recalled. He pointed out that the CEC has been creating a circus and a charade for 20 days and still has not announced the results of the early election for the president of Republika Srpska. "We must not forget that the CEC members were appointed contrary to the law, at a time when an open competition was underway, when applicants were submitting documents, attending interviews, and meeting the requirements. These were legal experts with experience in electoral law and then, in a single day, the House of Representatives appointed political loyalists," Kovačević said. He recalled that among those appointed was an adviser from the office of the SDS president, as well as the chairman of the PDP Statutory Commission. "That means that they appointed individuals who are complete political loyalists of certain interest groups from Republika Srpska, whose intentions are well known," Kovačević emphasized. He noted that the CEC is now doing everything possible to avoid announcing the election results and to continue generating institutional destabilization in Srpska, something they will not achieve. "As far as Srpska is concerned, these elections were not even necessary, but they were held and the people elected the president. All that remains is to announce the results and move on," Kovačević told RTRS. He pointed out that after recounting more than 6,000 ballots in Doboj, the result changed by only 0.87 percent, and that in numerous locations in Zvornik and elsewhere where ballots were recounted, it turned out that there was no change in the results. "What’s interesting is that they recount votes only where the /SNSD candidate/ Siniša Karan won, and they are not interested in recounting where he did not win. The goal is to artificially improve the result of the candidate whom the people of Republika Srpska did not elect," Kovačević concluded. He added that the intention is to push for repeat elections and create institutional destabilization in Republika Srpska so that Srpska cannot focus on key priorities, namely improving the standard of living for every person in the Republic.