The President of the Serbian Republic, Milorad Dodik, wanted to create facts with his own electoral law. Now the Constitutional Court is stopping him.
Constitutional Court’s Downer: Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik Photo: AP
SPLIT taz | Milorad Dodik, who sympathizes with Putin, still has to reach for the ceiling. On July 24, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina temporarily suspended the electoral law that Dodik, as president of the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, had adopted in April by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska. He wanted to create facts with it. But so far, the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), among others, has contradicted him. And that is unlikely to change in the near future.
Bosnia’s Constitutional Court said the entity’s new electoral law addresses issues already raised Bosnia’s electoral law and transfers the responsibilities of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia to the Commission of Subordinate Entities, thereby invalidating some provisions of the state-level electoral law.
OSCE Acting Chairman Ian Borg and Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid were critical of Dodik’s electoral law. Establishing parallel structures that undermine the country’s overall security and stability is contrary to Bosnia’s constitutional order.
The court’s July 24 ruling said it had to clarify whether the Republika Srpska National Assembly had the authority to regulate areas that are already regulated at the state level in Bosnia. The court said that implementing the Republika Srpska Electoral Code ahead of this year’s elections “would seriously undermine the role of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Local elections in October
It added that implementation of the law ahead of the upcoming local elections “could cause irreparable damage to the democratic electoral process and jeopardize the legal stability and legitimacy of the electoral process.” The Court considers that electoral rules are one of the key areas for ensuring free, fair and transparent elections that reflect the will of citizens. Bosnia is currently preparing for local elections on October 6.
Dodik wants to get rid of the independent foreign members of the Constitutional Court
In plain language: Based on the experience of the last elections, safeguards against electoral fraud have been built into the electoral law that now applies to the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and which also prompted High Representative Christian Schmidt to take action, especially after the clear fraud in the last presidential elections in favour of Dodik. Schmidt ensured that the elections in October could take place in a transparent and controlled manner.
But there are still some doors open for Dodik. According to the court ruling, the interim measure does not prejudice the final decision on the constitutionality of the laws in the Serbian entity. With a final decision, everything can change again.
Dodik is now trying to discredit and eliminate the independent foreign members of the Constitutional Court. “Foreigners want to destroy the Dayton Agreement,” he explained. And revealed his true intentions: to gain control over state forests and natural resources. “The foreigners wanted to strengthen state assets in Sarajevo,” he explained.