BLANUŠA: MINIĆ IS THE NEW PRESIDENT, I CONGRATULATE HIM ON THE RESULT

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 4 /SRNA/ - SDS candidate for president of Republika Srpska Branko Blanuša conceded defeat and congratulated his SNSD rival Savo Minić, whom he described as the new president of Republika Srpska.

"The trends at the moment show a large gap between Minić and me, and I congratulate him on the result," Blanuša said at a press conference in Banja Luka this evening.

Blanuša said the election results would be discussed at a meeting of the SDS Presidency.

Asked whether he would resign as SDS president, Blanuša said the party's governing bodies would decide on the party president.

He said the SDS would hold its regular election assembly next year, at which delegates would elect a new party president.

Blanuša said SDS bore part of the responsibility for the election result, but that other opposition parties and leaders also shared responsibility.

SDS candidate for Serb member of the BiH Presidency Marinko Božović said this was the best possible result the SDS candidates could have achieved.

"A third candidate was inserted into the race for Serb member of the BiH Presidency as a cuckoo's egg and did the job for those in power," Božović said.

He said SDS would provide the public with more specific information on the matter after completing its analysis.

"We will analyze which areas supported our candidates and to what extent, and on that basis SDS will draw certain conclusions and decide on measures for its future work," Božović said.

He said SDS would certainly have 10 or 11 deputies in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and two seats in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.