SNSD leader Milorad Dodik confirmed that their candidate for president of the Republika Srpska in the upcoming early elections will be Siniša Karan, the current Minister of Scientific and Technological Development and Higher Education of the Republic of Srpska. “Our proposal will be Karan, and now we will talk with coalition partners to reach an agreement,” Dodik told RTRS.
Siniša Karan (1962) was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Srpska, a university professor, a lawyer, held several other public positions in the Republic of Srpska, and for a time was also employed by the Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). As a reminder, the largest opposition party, the SDS, has proposed a candidate for president of the Republic of Srpska, Branko Blanuša, a university professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka, and is seeking support from the rest of the opposition in the elections.
With the decision of the SDS to nominate professor Branko Blanuša as its candidate, it is already clear that the elections will bring an open political duel between the government and the opposition. In addition to them, independent candidates Slavko Dragičević and Igor Gašević have also filed their candidacies, while the registered political entities include the Alliance for New Politics, the Ecological Party of RS, For Justice and Order – List of Nebojša Vukanović, the SDS and the SNSD.
The BiH Central Election Commission stripped Milorad Dodik of his mandate as President of the RS following a final judgment by the Court of BiH banning him from holding public office for the next six years. The final deadline for submitting certified applications is October 14.
