Bosnia’s Serb-run region, Republika Srpska, whose leader Milorad Dodik is defying a ban on him holding office, will hold a referendum on October 25 over a federal court ruling against him.
Lawmakers in the regional parliament of Republika Srpska voted late Friday to approve the referendum, deepening the political crisis around Dodik. His prime minister resigned on Monday, forcing a government reshuffle.
Dodik was convicted in February by a Bosnian federal court of undermining the fragile functioning of the Balkan country by flouting decisions by the international envoy enforcing a peace deal that ended Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war.
Dodik avoided a one-year prison sentence by paying a €19,000 fine, but an appeals court upheld a ruling that he be removed from the RS presidency and banned from political office for six years.
The regional leader has vowed to block elections in the Republika Srpska and to hold a series of referendums.
The one voted late Friday was the first of those.
The question to appear on the October ballot, Bosnian Serb lawmakers decided, was:
“Do you accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner (international envoy Christian Schmidt) and the unconstitutional verdict of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Court against the President of the RS, as well as the decision of the Bosnian Electoral Commission to revoke the mandate of the President of the RS, Milorad Dodik?”
Out of the 65 lawmakers present in the RS parliament, 50 voted in favour. Opposition lawmakers in the chamber refused to cast a vote.
