Bosnian Serbs Adopt Election Law Draft, Hitting Back at High Representative

After Bosnia’s international overseer imposed changes to the national election law, Serb-dominated Republika Srpska responded by adopting a draft of its own version of the legislation and threatening to paralyse state-level decision-making.

The president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. Photo: Dodik.net.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted a draft in the early hours of Friday morning of a new Election Law for the entity, while calling on the state-level parliament to reject changes to the national law imposed this week by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

The draft, adopted at 2.30am, will still need to undergo a procedure of public consultations and harmonisation with other laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina before it can be adopted.

In a speech before the vote, Milorad Dodik, president of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity, called the law one of “the most important” documents for the entity.

“Therefore, I ask you to focus on this document. Let’s stay united and continue to enact laws that we believe are most important for Republika Srpska,” Dodik told lawmakers.

The meeting came two days after High Representative Schmidt, the international official responsible for overseeing the continued implementation of the peace deal that ended the Bosnian war imposed a set of changes to the state-level Election Law, using his so-called ‘Bonn powers’ to force legislation through.

The changes include the implementation of modern technologies, the professionalisation of local election committees and the way they are selected, transparency in the voting process and registration of voters, and a ban on convicted war criminals taking part in elections or holding public office.

Dodik said the new Election Law of Republika Srpska will go into force on April 16 and will be used at local elections in October unless a set of conditions is met by the state-level parliament.

According to Bosnian legislation, the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Federation, can make their own laws only if they are in accordance with the state-level one.

The new draft law in Republika Srpska declares that the entity has control over elections and envisages the creation of a Republic Election Commision, which would make the current one invalid.

The Bosnian Serbs’ conditions for the state parliament and Peace Implementation Council, the international body tasked with implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement, include the annulment of all Schmidt’s decisions.

State-level institutions should be barred from implementing Schmidt’s decisions, the Office of the High Representative’s website should be declared unfit for publishing legal acts, and the state-level Official Gazette should prohibited from publishing content from “foreigners”, the Bosnian Serbs are also demanding.

They also want a new electoral law to be adopted and “enforced from the October 2024 local elections”, and for the Central Electoral Commission to be disbanded if the state-level parliament fails to accept the conditions.

They also want the US and German ambassadors to Bosnia, along with High Representative Schmidt, to labelled as “enemies of the state” and face expulsion.

The deadline for the conditions to be met is seven days, otherwise the Bosnian Serbs have threatened to paralyse decision-making processes at the state-level.

“Republika Srpska should adopt its electoral law in the form of a draft, to initiate a public dialogue on it as soon as possible. The implementation of this should start very soon. I will sign it. Give me the law, I will sign it,” Dodik said during his speech.

Dodik also threatened the potential termination of cooperation with current coalition partners and the possibility of negotiating new agreements with other political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He further threatened that Republika Srpska should proceed with implementing all previously enacted laws related to its status. This includes withdrawing from agreements concerning the Armed Forces, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, indirect taxes and other agreements.

Dodik also calls for the activation of other legislation that has been annulled by the state-level Constitutional Court.

While imposing the changes to the Election Law, Schmidt provided a grace period of seven days for Bosnian politicians to reach a common solution before the legislation goes into force.

For key provisions, the grace period extends until April 19, unless the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopts suitable amendments to the Election Law before that date.