Dodik stripped of mandate as President of Republika Srpska

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina has revoked the mandate of the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik.

This is reported by the N1 TV channel.

The decision was made unanimously — three members of the commission were present at the meeting, while the others had previously submitted their consent to the decision. Thus, all seven members of CEC supported the cancellation of the mandate.

The meeting was held in absentia as some members were absent, but they expressed their opinion on the decision in writing.

The CEC member Suad Arnautovic explained that the decision is not yet final and will only come into effect after the deadline for filing an appeal, which could take a month or two due to administrative procedures.

What preceded

Dodik is a pro-Russian supporter of secession from Bosnia. He initiated a law that would ban the state judiciary and police from operating in the Serbian region, but the Bosnian Constitutional Court temporarily suspended its operation. This law, modeled on the Russian one, provides for tight control over the activities of the public sector in RS. Dodik has said that the law will be implemented anyway, despite the courtʼs decision.

In March, the Prosecutorʼs Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an arrest warrant for Dodik and other politicians. They were charged with “violating the constitutional order”. The warrant was issued on the day the National Assembly of Republika Srpska was to discuss a draft constitution, according to which the authorities of the autonomy wanted to define it as a state of the Serbian people, grant it the right to self-determination and create its own army. This contradicts the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Contrary to a domestic arrest warrant, Dodik crossed the border into neighboring Serbia in late March and traveled to Israel for a conference on anti-Semitism.

On March 27, a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an international arrest warrant for Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who is accused of violating the constitutional order.

• In February, a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted Milorad Dodik of disobeying a decision by international peacekeeper Christian Schmidt, who oversees the Balkan country. Dodik was found guilty of ignoring Schmidt’s decision and signing laws that Schmidt had previously overturned.
• The laws were intended to block the implementation of decisions by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the High Representative himself in the territory of Republika Srpska, although both bodies had previously overturned similar parliamentary initiatives. At the time, Dodik was sentenced to a year in prison and a six-year ban on political activity.

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