Bosnian Serb President Dodik ousted after guilty verdict

Central Election Commission revokes Milorad Dodik’s mandate as Republika Srpska entity president after confirmation of his prison sentence and ban on holding presidential office.

Azem Kurtic, August 6, 2025

Milorad Dodik entering the court in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: N1/F.Z.

Bosnia’s top election regulator, the Central Election Commission, revoked Milorad Dodik’s presidential mandate on Wednesday following his one-year prison sentence and six-year ban on holding the office of president of Republika Srpska.

Dodik was convicted of not complying with the decisions of Bosnia’s international peace overseer, the High Representative.

Dodik’s defence has up to two days to appeal the decision before the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which handles electoral complaints. Once the appeals process is exhausted, the decision will become final.

The Central Election Commission will then issue a decision on calling early elections.

Responding in a post on X soon after the decision was made public, Dodik described it as “more bullshit from Sarajevo. No more.” In another post, 30 minutes later, Dodik added that, “surrender and giving up do not exist. Surrender is not an option.”

Speaking to the Serb entity’s public broadcaster, RTRS, the speaker of the Republika Srpska assembly, Nenad Stevandic, said Dodik cannot be barred from political life, as his political influence remains undisputed and rooted in strong electoral support.

“Dodik is not a chair that someone can hand over and replace with another,” Stevandic told RTRS. “He represents a political agenda that received the highest number of votes in Bosnia and Herzegovina – no one in the Federation [entity], which is twice as large [in population. terms], has ever won as many votes as Dodik. That is a historical fact, but it’s also our current reality.”

Dodik was convicted on August 1 of knowingly defying decisions issued by Bosnia’s High Representative, Christian Schmidt, in July 2023.

Bosnia’s international overseer had blocked implementation of two laws adopted by the Republika Srpska authorities – one preventing enforcement of state-level Constitutional Court rulings in the entity, and another amending legislation on publishing official acts. Despite this, Dodik continued legislative procedures in defiance of Schmidt’s decisions.

Following the verdict, Dodik stated defiantly that he would continue performing his duties despite the verdict, while his legal team announced it will appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The government of Republika Srpska at an emergency session on Tuesday adopted eight conclusions, including rejection of the verdict issued by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All the political parties in the Serb-led entity were called upon to “stand in defence of Republika Srpska and its president”.

Copyright BIRN 2007