Milorad Dodik, after the suspension of the entity electoral law adopted in the NSRS, is now accused of violating the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes Berlin's TAZ.
Milorad Dodik, a Putin sympathizer, still has to comply with the current rules, writes Erich Ratfelder for the Berlin Tagescajtung (TAZ), recalling the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina which temporarily invalidated the Election Law in the RS, after Dodik, as the president of the Serbian entity in BiH, in April 2024 ensured that this law was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska.
With that, writes TAZ, he wanted to bring everything to a fait accompli. However, so far he has been opposed, among other things, by the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). And that probably won't change anytime soon.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina assessed, it is explained further in the text, that the new election law of the Republika Srpska entity regulates issues that are already regulated by the election law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and transfers the competences of the Central Election Commission of BiH to its subordinate entity Election Commission of the RS. At the same time, some parts of the electoral law at the state level are declared invalid.
OSCE chairman Jan Borg and general secretary Helga Maria Šmid also criticized Dodik's election law. They assessed that the establishment of parallel structures undermines the general security and stability of the country and is against the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Berlin newspaper also states that the decision of the Constitutional Court of July 24 states that it must be clarified whether the National Assembly of the RS has the authority to encroach on issues that are already regulated at the state level and to regulate them in another way. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that the application of such an Election Law of the Republic of Srpska would "seriously undermine the role of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina" and that, before the upcoming local elections, "it would cause irreparable damage to the democratic electoral process and legal stability and threaten the legitimacy of the electoral process". The Constitutional Court points out that election regulations are one of the key areas for ensuring free, fair and transparent elections that reflect the will of the citizens, and BiH is currently preparing for local elections that will be held on October 6, writes TAZ.
The currently valid Election Law for the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author of the text explains, includes measures against election fraud adopted after the experiences of the last elections, especially after the obvious election manipulations in the last presidential elections in favor of Dodik, which also led to the reaction of the high representative Kristijan Shmitta. By imposing changes to the BiH Election Law, he ensured that the elections in October would be transparent and controlled.
"Nevertheless, the door is still open to Dodik. This measure, as stated in the court's decision, does not prejudge 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 the independent foreign members of the Constitutional Court and get rid of them. "Foreigners want to destroy the Dayton Agreement," Dodik said recently, revealing his true intentions: to put state-owned forests and mineral resources under their control," the German newspaper Tageskeitung concluded.
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