SARAJEVO – On 12 August, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina replaced a one-year prison sentence for the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, with a fine. Such a decision means that Dodik will pay the monetary penalty, which amounts to around 18,660 Euros, instead of serving time in prison, as allowed by the country’s criminal court for sentences up to 12 months.
However, the ruling upheld a six-year ban on Dodik holding public office, which was imposed alongside the original prison sentence. This ban led the Central Election Commission to revoke his mandate as President of the RS shortly after the verdict became final, triggering the legal requirement for early elections in the entity.
Dodik was convicted earlier this month for refusing to implement decisions issued in 2023 by the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt. He has described such a ruling as “more bullshit from Sarajevo” and vowed to continue fighting, claiming that “surrender is not an option”.
In addition, he launched multiple appeals to various courts, including the Court of Appeals, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and potentially the European Court of Human Rights, to overturn the loss of his office.
Dodik also suggested a possible referendum in Republika Srpska to challenge the court’s decision or reaffirm his mandate. According to him, “BiH is entering a series of referendums”.
“The first referendum will be about the verdict of the Constitutional Court. It will not stop there, but it will create other referendums”, Dodik told Radio Television of RS.
It has been officially stated that the National Assembly of Republika Srpska plans to discuss the decision by the Central Election Commission to terminate Dodik’s term of office. However, it is still not known when this session will take place.
According to the media in BiH, the special session will be an introduction to the calling of a referendum aimed at “rejection of the final verdict on Milorad Dodik by the people in RS”.
Some opposition politicians in the RS are in favour of early elections in the RS instead of the referendum.
On the other hand, the leader of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and Mayor of Banja Luka, Draško Stanivuković, said that the PDP will not participate in possible early presidential elections.
“We will not build a political future on someone else’s ruin. The PDP will not participate in elections arising from political-judicial engineering. Changes in society must come by the will of the people, not by the decision of the court”, Stanivuković stated.
