The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held an extraordinary electronic plenary session today, at which it adopted a request for the adoption of an interim measure in a case in which the applicant Darko Babalj, First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, filed a request for the review of the constitutionality of the Law on Financing Political Organizations (Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska, No. 45/25). He also requested that the Constitutional Court adopt an interim measure.
The decision on the interim measure temporarily suspends the Law on Financing Political Organizations (Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, No. 45/25) adopted at the 22nd special session of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska held on May 21, 2025.
In its reasoning, the Constitutional Court, among other things, pointed out that the existence of significantly different legal solutions at the state and entity levels when it comes to public financing of political parties/organizations indicates a well-founded suspicion that the application of the disputed law could jeopardize the constitutional principle of the rule of law and result in different treatment in the exercise of political rights and activities of political parties from the entity of the RS.
The Constitutional Court also considered relevant the fact that the decision-making process takes place at the very end of the budget year, when it is necessary to distribute already planned funds, according to the statement from the session of the Constitutional Court of BiH.
Failure to adopt an interim measure would, in the event that the applicant’s request is subsequently adopted, lead to a situation in which these funds could no longer be distributed for the current year and their payment would be impossible.
Additionally, due to the same circumstances, there is a real possibility that funds for public financing of political entities would not be planned at all in the RS budget for 2026.
Thus, the validity of the disputed law, if it were declared unconstitutional, would produce long-term irreversible consequences that would affect not only the distribution of funds for 2025, but also the overall possibility of ensuring the legally stipulated level of financing in the year of the general elections.
In this regard, the Constitutional Court recalled that general elections will be held next year, i.e. in October 2026, and that before the elections are called, political parties and independent candidates will have to undertake preparatory activities for the elections.
This circumstance further emphasizes the immediate and potentially irreparable consequences of the application of the contested law for political parties.
Having assessed the arguments presented by the applicant, the Constitutional Court considered that there were sufficient reasons indicating that the implementation of the contested law before the Constitutional Court decides on the submitted request for review of constitutionality would have serious and irreparable harmful consequences.
The Constitutional Court of BiH recalls that the decision on the interim measure does not prejudge the decision on the merits of the request.
