A referendum was to be held in Republika Srpska today, in which citizens would declare whether they accept the decisions of the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt, the verdict of the Court of BiH against former President of RS Milorad Dodik, as well as the decision of the Central Election Commission of BiH to strip him of his mandate. The referendum did not take place.

“The National Assembly of RS adopted an earlier decision to call a referendum that was scheduled for today. The question was whether you support the verdict to strip Dodik of his mandate, whether the people support the verdict against Dodik or not. I have been saying from the beginning that this is all a fraud and manipulation of the people, and what I announced happened, that there will be no referendum and that it will just be a kind of attempt to collect some points,” said Nebojša Vukanović, a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, president of the party For Justice and Order, to Fena news agency.

He said that this very issue was raised yesterday at the session of the Collegium of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, but that no concrete agreement was reached.

“We have not received a concrete answer from the Speaker of the Assembly, Nenad Stevandić. He is dragging himself to the Constitutional Court of the RS, supposedly waiting for a decision, and it has not yet been published in the Official Gazette of the RS. Well, it seems that the director of the Official Gazette has refused to obey the RS authorities. This is one in a series of gross humiliations of both the National Assembly and all institutions,” Vukanović pointed out.

He emphasized that he wonders how it is possible that these people are suffering so much.

“I wonder how it is possible that every day there are not thousands of people protesting because of the generally bad political situation, but also because of other events like these, the announcement of a referendum, the scheduling of a date, the determination of questions, and then they did not appoint a Commission or hold a referendum. Then boycotting the elections, then going to the polls in two days. Then adopting laws, then trampling on those same laws. Something like this has never been seen in this region before,” said Vukanović.

He emphasized that not holding a referendum means both betrayal and capitulation.

“Dodik was forced to do everything that foreigners and Americans expect of him. And he does it continuously. And I keep saying that he remains in power because he betrays and sells RS, destroys it economically, demographically, commercially and in every other way. He gave concessions to every mine, every natural resource, sold off all property and handed it over to foreigners for management, and now his betrayal and capitulation has reached its peak,” said Vukanović.

According to him, that referendum was directly subordinated to Milorad Dodik’s interests to make him a victim and to create the impression – the people are against it, they want him as their leader.

“He wanted to present himself as the victim of some white-collar conspiracy. He eventually capitulated and the people despise cowards and cowards who retreat. I am sure that people will punish him in the next elections for this capitulation and betrayal,” said Vukanović.

The RS National Assembly adopted a decision earlier to hold a referendum scheduled for today. The referendum question that was to be offered to the citizens of RS was: “Do you accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner Christian Schmidt and the unconstitutional verdict of the Court of BiH against the President of Republika Srpska, as well as the decision of the Central Election Commission to revoke the mandate of the President of RS Milorad Dodik?”.