A special session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska will be held in Banja Luka, and the deputies will have an extremely extensive agenda. The resignation of Prime Minister Radovan Višković, the verdict against Milorad Dodik, and the decision of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina terminating his mandate as President of Republika Srpska will be discussed.
Amendments to the law on the referendum and a proposal to call it in October will also be on the table. The opposition accuses Dodik of wanting to stay in office by force, but there is still no agreement within their ranks on what the solution to the institutional vacuum is.
SNSD leader Milorad Dodik confirmed that the referendum could be held on October 18 or 25, and he also revealed the tentative referendum question: “Do the people accept that Kristijan Šmit is destroying the constitutional order of Republika Srpska and that an unconstitutional court is destroying the Constitution and removing elected officials? Of course, the final formulation will be clear, but that is the gist.” Dodik stressed that he does not want conflicts and that the upcoming battle will be exclusively political, with the message that the will of the people must be respected.
The opposition, however, believes that Dodik is leading Republika Srpska into dangerous political adventurism.
“Milorad Dodik adheres to the maxim – after me, the flood. He believes that if he is not at the helm of the RS, he should destroy everything. The SNSD regime is rapidly falling apart. Dodik is dragging his closest associates into problems,” said Nebojša Vukanović from the List for Justice and Order.
Draško Stanivuković, president of the PDP, has a similar view, warning that the announcements of the referendum are leading to additional isolation. “We are certain that any political adventurism and radicalism is leading our Republika Srpska into further isolation that we cannot endure either as a people or as institutions,” Stanivuković said.
Jelena Trivić, president of the People’s Front, recalled that she was Dodik’s main opponent in the 2022 elections, but now emphasizes that the process against him in the Court of BiH is political. She believes that a serious dialogue is necessary on the role of foreign judges in the Constitutional Court and on the OHR, and sees the solution in early elections: “Participate in early elections, elect a president who has legitimacy among the people and continue to form the executive branch.”
Although the opposition maintains that the SNSD is pursuing the wrong policy, there is still no unified answer within its ranks to the question of how to get out of the institutional crisis. Therefore, there is a belief that tomorrow’s session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska will not bring concrete answers either.
