Arnautović: It is important to distinguish between extraordinary and early elections

(Patria) - Member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina Suad Arnautović addressed the media after today's session where a decision was made to revoke the mandate of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik.

As he pointed out, the CEC acted exclusively in accordance with the law, with no room for any discretion.

– We must act by force of law. We have no choice. We make decisions, and there is no possibility of not implementing them. This decision is certainly subject to an appeal procedure before the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, provided that the legal team files an appeal – said Arnautović.

He added that this is not the first time the CEC has acted in this way, and that they have made numerous similar decisions before.

– We have had hundreds of such cases where the termination of a mandate before its expiry is determined. We wanted to clarify once again what the procedure and actions of the CEC look like in such situations – he emphasized.

He particularly underlined the importance of distinguishing between the concepts of extraordinary and early elections.

– Early elections refer to the remaining part of the mandate after a person loses their position. However, we do not have the institution of extraordinary elections in our legislation – concluded Arnautović.