Banjaluka – The Republika Srpska Parliament’s Constitutional Committee today urged the BiH Constitutional Court to reject the request of the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, who asked the Court to void the decision on holding a referendum on Republika Srpska Day.
The Committee urged the BiH Constitutional Court to declare Izetbegovic’s request inadmissible, unacceptable and unfounded, and not to accept a proposal to bring a provisional measure to halt the carrying out of a referendum, says a press release from the Republika Srpska Parliament.
The Republika Srpska Parliament’s Constitutional Committee says that the decision to call a referendum does not violate the BiH Constitution, that there are no justified reasons to bring a provisional measure, and asks that the Court focuses on voiding the decision which says that the celebration of January 9, Republika Srpska Day, is unconstitutional.
The Republika Srpska Parliament says that neither constitutional nor legal solutions on which the decision to call a referendum is based violate the BiH Constitution, adding that therefore, the request is disputable in procedural and legal sense and it problematises the holding of a referendum which is completely unfounded and unacceptable.
The Republika Srpska Parliament says that the “request for resolving the constitutional and legal dispute with the Entity called Republika Srpska,” as Bakir Izetbegovic says in his request, is exclusively a political and not legal act.
It says that the request is unusual and poorly defined.
“It is not clear whether this is a request for assessment of constitutionality of the said act, the request for launching a constructional and legal dispute, political pressure by way of unclear and unfounded citation of acts and his individual perceptions, presentation of the state of affairs and projection of future events, which he connects with the explanation of formal and legal reasons for launching a constitutional and legal procedure and for the demand for assessment of constitutionality” says the press release.
It says that having in mind the contradiction of the request, the Republika Srpska Parliament is of the opinion that the BiH Constitutional Court should have invited the applicant and should have asked him to clarify it and arrange it in keeping with the BiH Constitution and rules of the BiH Constitutional Court.
It says that the decision to call a referendum was adopted in keeping with the Constitution and the law on a referendum and civil initiative and according to a stipulated procedure in the Republika Srpska Parliament and the Republika Srpska Council of Peoples.
“Izetbegovic’s request contains an open intention to destroy the legality and legitimacy of Republika Srpska and the constitutional order of BiH which was verified by the Dayton Peace Agreement by which it was legally verified that January 9 is the day of its founding,” says the press release.
On August 24, BiH Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic filed a request with the BiH Constitutional Court asking that it resolve the constitutional and legal dispute with Republika Srpska because of a decision to call a referendum on Republika Srpska Day which the Republika Srpska Parliament adopted on July 15.
Izetbegovic asks the BiH Constitutional Court to determine if the decision of the Republika Srpska Parliament is contrary to the BiH Constitution and to void it, as well as to bring a provisional measure to halt the carrying out of a referendum.