"A close ally of Milorad Dodik, the former leader of the Serb-run part of Bosnia and Herzegovina who was barred from office over separatist policies that were stoking ethnic tensions, has won the territory's snap presidential election. The election commission announced on Sunday that Sinisa Karan, standing for the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats party (SNSD), won 50.89 percent of the vote in the election, which was called to replace Dodik as president after he was stripped of his office and banned from politics for six years."
"Dodik, speaking at the SNSD headquarters in Banja Luka, the capital of Bosnian Serb statelet Republika Srpska, called Karan's win unquestionable. The dismissed leader was ousted in August after a Bosnian court convicted him of disobeying the orders of the international High Representative for Bosnia, who oversees the implementation of the 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody three-and-a-half-year Bosnian war. He had repeatedly clashed with High Representative Christian Schmidt, declaring his decisions illegal in Republika Srpska, which is controlled by Bosnian Serbs."
Sinisa Karan, the SNSD candidate, won Republika Srpska's snap presidential election with 50.89 percent of the vote. The ballot was called to replace Milorad Dodik after a court stripped him of office and banned him from politics for six years for disobeying the international High Representative. Dodik repeatedly clashed with High Representative Christian Schmidt and advocated eventual separation of Republika Srpska from Bosnia. Dodik paid a fine to avoid jail and stepped aside while remaining leader of the SNSD. Karan defeated opposition candidate Branko Blanusa and said democratic elections strengthen peace, stability and institutions in Republika Srpska.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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