BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, July 20 (AFP) - Bosnian Serb lawmakers appointed a nationalist party politician as parliamentary speaker on Tuesday, replacing Dragan Kalinic who was sacked for allegedly supporting war criminals.
Kalinic was the most powerful figure among 60 Bosnian Serb officials who were sacked last month by international High Representative Paddy Ashdown, the overseer of the Balkan republic`s 1995 Dayton peace accords.
Dusan Stojicic, 40, the spokesman of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), was backed by 44 deputies in the 83-seat parliament. Seventeen voted against and 13 abstained.
Stojicic said his election meant "unblocking of the work of the parliament and overcoming the institutional crisis provoked by undemocratic decisions by the high representative ... "
The SDS was founded in the 1990s by top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader during the country`s 1992-1995 conflict.
Post-war Bosnia consists of two semi-autonomous halves -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs` Republika Srspka (RS). Each entity has its own government, parliament, army and police.