The assembly of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, has voted on Wednesday to hold a referendum on confidence in the country's state justice system and in the authority of High Representative to Bosnia.
Out of 76 deputies present, 45 voted in favor while 31 abstained. The referendum will be held in mid-September.
The assembly of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, will hold a special session next week to vote on holding a referendum challenging the authority of Bosnia’s High Representative and the state judicial institutions.
The session was requested by the Republika Srpska President, Milorad Dodik, who is launching the initiative for the second time in four years.
International officials, local experts as well as Bosnian Serb opposition parties have condemned the plan.
Awaiting news from New York, where UN Security Council discusses about the British draft of Resolution on Srebrenica, RS political parties representatives met to decide when they will hold the special session of RS National Assembly to consider the reactivation of the earlier call on referendum about citizens’ trust in BiH state Court and Prosecution office work.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik proposed on Tuesday that a referendum challenging the authority of the state-level judiciary and Bosnia’s top international official, the High Representative, should take place at the beginning of September.
Elections experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) met with electoral stakeholders in Sarajevo on June 24-25, 2015 to present recommendations from the final report on the October 12, 2014 general elections in BiH, announced the OSCE Mission in BiH.
Leaders of the main Bosniak and Croat parties in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, have started talks with parties on forming a new ruling coalition.
Some Western diplomats have expressed concerns that the new coalition, possibly including a larger number of smaller parties, could be even more difficult to manage than the last government.
Democratic front (DF) ministers in the Federation BiH government submitted the joint resignation on their posts on Friday afternoon, signaling the definitive end of the “stable and constructive” coalition with the party of democratic action (SDA and Croatian Democratic Union BiH (HDZ BiH).
EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn cancelled his visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo after leaders of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska refused to sign the action plan on reforms aimed to unblock EU integration and secure new funding from international financial institutions.
According to the plan, the country's two entities and state government were due to sign the reform agenda at a meeting with Hahn at a roundtable in Sarajevo on Thursday.
Bosnia's Federation entity on Tuesday adopted a reform plan crucial for the country’s EU ambitions and discussed its 2015-2018 action plan.
However, concrete action on any of the measures is threatened by the deepening political crisis in one of the country's two entities.
“The [reform] agenda is still not public, because it is not signed. This is the first government in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has adopted it,” Federation entity Prime Minister Fadil Novalic said after a government session.
The Democratic Front, DF, has quit the ruling coalition in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the government – against the votes of DF ministers – changed the rules on the appointments of new managers for public companies.
The break-up of the ruling coalition has been dragging on for months, marked by personal rows, conflicting statements and short-lived compromises.
A congress of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, on Tuesday elected a new leadership for the new four years, electing Bakir Izetbegovic as president while choosing a deputy president, eight vice-presidents and a new main board.
“I am honoured by these results,” Izetbegovic told the congress after his overwhelming victory. He stressed the importance of reconciliation across Balkan countries, but also among different Bosniak factions within the SDA itself.
The political scene in BiH was shaken Monday as Nenad Stevandic, one of highest officials in Serb Democratic Party (SDS), announced that he is not a member of this party any more.
At the press conference in Banja Luka, Stevandic explained why he decided to leave the biggest opposition party in Republic of Srpska, which is also part of the ruling coalition on the BiH level.
Bakir Izetbegovic of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and Zeljko Komsic of the Democratic Front, DF, on Tuesday said the crisis in the government of Bosnia's mainly Bosniak and Croat Federation entity had been resolved.
The two politicians said that problems over opposing views among coalition partners on the replacement of managers in key public companies had been overcome.
Their separate statements indicated different positions on the issue, however.
The European Integration and Regional Cooperation Board of the assembly in Republika Srpska - Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity - rejected two draft laws on Monday that the assembly was due to debate on Tuesday.
Trade unions and NGOs claimed the two draft laws on public gatherings and non-proft organisations aimed to further increase political control in the entity.
The three justice ministries on the state and entity level have agreed on the draft strategy after a long delay but the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina told BIRN on Monday that the funds necessary for the employment of 142 workers in the judiciary will only be released after it is adopted.
The coalition government of Bosnia’s Federation entity was on the brink of collapse on Friday as the main players battled over control over lucrative public companies.
“Collapse in the government of BiH Federation,” the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz reported on Friday, referring to the decision of the ministers from the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, to walk out of an entity government session in a dispute about the control of public companies.
The Serb Democratic Party, SDS, chose Bosic to lead the party for another four years at its party congress on Sunday in Banja Luka.
“We have to show that we have courage and that we can start the fight against corruption and crime which was carried out under the auspices of the political leadership of the current government in the [Serb-dominated entity of] Republika Srpska,” Bosic said in his address to the SDS congress.
“Changes are necessary and we will try to get even stronger through the selection of the new leadership,” he added.
Police in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, have arrested 30 persons suspected of involvement in Islamist radical activity and of posing a possible security threat, RS police confirmed on Thursday.
The mass arrest, carried out exclusively by Bosnian Serb police and without the usual coordination with state and other security agencies, has raised concerns among Bosniaks in the country.
Ministers from the main Bosnian Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, skipped the session of the Federation entity government on Thursday in a continuing dispute with coalition partners over the appointment of managers in public firms.
The president of the Federation entity, Marinko Cavara, who is also Vice-President of the HDZ, said that all the coalition partners, including the HDZ, the [mainly Bosniak] Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and the [non-ethnic] Democratic Front, DF, have to reach decisions mutually.
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