BANJALUKA, MAY 17 (ONASA) – The ruling coalition in Republika Srpska decided to invite the opposition parties to a meeting on Monday to agree on a common position on local elections in October this year.
“We have not made a decision under which law we will exit. I invite all the parties in Srpska to have a discussion on this topic on Monday and to see if we can reach an agreement with the representatives of the opposition. If we do not reach an agreement, we will have another meeting of the ruling coalition,” said Nenad Stevandić, President of the National Assembly of the RS.
SNSD President Milorad Dodik previously stated that the Presidency of this party agreed not to participate in the local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the manner proposed by Christian Schmidt and said that dialogue with the opposition is necessary.
However, as things stand now, that dialogue will not take place because all opposition parties resolutely rejected Dodik’s invitation, calling it a hypocritical attempt by the government to shift the burden of responsibility onto the opposition.
“It is pointless to comment on the statements of executed and inconsistent ruling regime politicians. One day they go to the polls, the next day they don’t, the third day they postpone them, the fourth day they are swallowed by frogs… lost in time and space, forever looking for excuses for their failures, false patriotism and deception “, said PDP president Branislav Borenović, commenting on the invitation of SNSD and its partners to dialogue with the opposition regarding participation in local elections.
It is pointless, says Borenović, to be a decorum in this transparent play of political pests who have done everything to block the adoption of rules for fair and honest elections for years.
“We have nothing to agree and negotiate with the SNSD, whose leader just a few days ago called out the opposition and the Serbian Democratic Party at the top of their lungs for national betrayal with the false construction of handing over the cities of the Republika Srpska to the Bosniak parties,” said Milan Miličević, the president Serbian Democratic Party.
He says that the goal of calling SNSD, the President of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and the President of the Republika Srpska to the opposition is “hypocritically creating an alibi for participating in the elections according to the rules of the Central Election Commission, that is, swallowing the previously announced frogs”, considering that they are derogating for who knows how many times institutions of the Republika Srpska and adopted Decisions in the National Assembly on the electoral law according to which they never intended to hold elections, while at the same time adopting the financing of joint institutions, including the CEC.
“Given that they realized that the public did not fall for the false patriotic story about the organization of local elections according to the electoral law of the Republic of Srpska, they are now trying to drag the opposition into a new trap of national unity, which the SNSD has been destroying for years,” Miličević said and added:
“The Serbian Democratic Party will not participate in that show, and let the SNSD and its satellites swallow their own frogs,” the SDS leader concluded.
The People’s Front will not respond to Dodik’s invitation either.
“The People’s Front will not respond to the invitation of the ruling coalition to discuss participation in the elections,” said the president of that party, Jelena Trivić.
They consider the call extremely hypocritical because, as he says, those same parties of the ruling coalition, all but one, entered the application process for the elections announced by the Central Election Commission.
“A month ago, when asked by a journalist under which law we would register for the elections, I said ‘according to Dodik, we certainly won’t’ and we have remained on those positions. It is clear that the opposition needs to serve them in order to hide behind us, that is, in order to have an alibi for their participation in the announced elections,” Trivić is clear.
As he says, considering that the process of swallowing a frog was not a sufficient explanation for the lies they have been spreading all this time regarding Dodik’s Election Law, they have now remembered the opposition.
“Of course, we are not naive to fall for these kinds of ‘offers’. The journey from kicking ‘into the hero’s chest’ with Dodik’s election law, to swallowing frogs and crocodiles to calling the opposition is more than pathetic. There is simply no better word,” concluded the president of the National front.
“There are no meetings or agreements for the straw to save the regime,” wrote Nebojša Vukanović, the head of the parliamentary club List for Justice and Order, on his blog.
“With wise moves, we lured them into a trap, to adopt the Electoral Law of the Republic of Srpska, with an announcement and a firm promise that they would go to the elections according to it, and then, according to custom and tradition, they folded their tails, fearing the reaction of foreigners, retreated like cowards and humiliated the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska again. We do not think of and do not want to give the regime a saving grace, to fall for their tricks, because their goal is to draw us into their anaconda arms, in order to share the political responsibility for the crisis that they themselves provoked by insane policies and moves,” wrote Vukanović. (end)