The main Bosnian Serb opposition party, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, nominated party leader Vukota Govedarica as its candidate for president of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serbian-dominated entity in elections this autumn.
The 41-year-old leader of the Serbian Democratic Party from the pro-EU Alliance for Changes is positioning himself as the catalyst to end the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats’ nearly 12-year-long hold on power.
After several hours of discussions on Saturday, the Serbian Democratic Party, the strongest member of Republika Srpska’s opposition Alliance for Changes, announced party leader Vukota Govedarica as its candidate for president of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serbian-dominated entity in elections this October.
“I feel a great responsibility in front of every person in Republika Srpska who wants to live freely,” Govedarica said at a press conference on Saturday. “My job is to free RS [Republika Srpska] from the occupation of the SNSD [Alliance of Independent Social Democrats] and their boss [President Milorad Dodik].”
Other contenders for the Alliance’s nomination included Bosnian Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Minister Mirko Sarovic and Mico Micic, mayor of the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina.
Govedarica, who has headed the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) since 2016, said he plans to base his campaign on a fight “against crime and institutional corruption,” which he described as “widespread.”
“I am ready to make changes,” he said. “If we are to be like SNSD, may God not let us win.”
The Alliance for Changes charges that the Moscow-friendly Dodik and his nationalist SNSD, in power since 2006, are pushing Republika Srpska toward dictatorship and international isolation, while also entangling it in rampant corruption.
The SNSD, which heartily rejects such criticism, has not yet announced its own candidate for this October’s presidential elections.
At this point, Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic is the most likely SNSD candidate for president, say BIRN sources within the party. They caution, though, that no final decision has been made.
“Cvijanovic has a lot of opponents in the party, and many people would not like to see her as a candidate,” one source said. “The president [Dodik] has not yet decided. I guess we will have to wait.”
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