Dodik in trouble

Milorad Dodik is accused of violating the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Berlin newspaper TAZ writes, after the electoral law of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was suspended.

Milorad Dodik, a Putin sympathizer, must still abide by the current rules, writes Erich Ratfelder for the Berlin Tagescajtung (TAZ), referring to the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which temporarily declared the electoral law in the RS invalid, after Dodik, as president of the Serbian entity in BiH, secured its adoption by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska in April 2024.

With that, TAZ writes, he wanted to make everything a fait accompli. So far, however, he has encountered opposition from, among others, the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). And that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled, as explained further in the text, that the new Electoral Code of the Republika Srpska entity regulates issues already regulated by the Electoral Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and transfers the powers of the Central Election Commission of BiH to its subordinate entity Election Commission of the RS. At the same time, some parts of the State-level Electoral Code are declared invalid.

OSCE Chairman Jan Borg and Secretary General Helga Maria Šmid also criticized Dodik’s electoral law. They judged that the creation of parallel structures undermines the overall security and stability of the country and is contrary to the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Berlin newspaper also states that the Constitutional Court’s decision of July 24 states that it should be clarified whether the RS National Assembly has the power to intervene in issues already regulated at the state level and regulate them in a different way. The Constitutional Court of BiH announced that the application of such an electoral law of the Republika Srpska “would seriously undermine the role of the Central Election Commission of BiH” and that, before the upcoming local elections, it would “cause irreparable damage to the democratic electoral process and threaten the legal stability and legitimacy of the electoral process.” The Constitutional Court points out that electoral rules are one of the most important areas to ensure free, fair and transparent elections that reflect the will of citizens, and BiH is currently preparing for local elections that will be held on October 6, TAZ writes.

The current valid electoral code for the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author of the text explains, includes measures against electoral fraud that were adopted after the experience of the last elections, in particular after the clear electoral manipulations in the last presidential elections in favor of Dodik, which also led to the reaction of High Representative Kristijan Shmitta. By imposing changes to the electoral code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he ensured that the October elections would be transparent and monitored.

“However, the door is still open for Dodik. This measure, as stated in the court ruling, does not prejudice the final decision on the constitutionality of the law in the Serbian entity. The final decision could change everything. Dodik is now trying to discredit and get rid of the independent foreign members of the Constitutional Court. “Foreigners want to destroy the Dayton Agreement,” Dodik said recently, revealing his true intentions: to bring state forests and mineral resources under their control,” concluded the German newspaper Tageskeitung.

( German Wave )