Will the early presidential elections in Republika Srpska be postponed?

(Patria) - The Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH is facing blockades in the implementation of early elections for the president of Republika Srpska, given that the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH has not yet approved funds in the amount of 6.4 million KM for their realization.

Deep divisions within the ruling coalition, SNSD obstructions, HDZ's retention of SNSD cadres in power, and the indecisiveness of the "Trojka" (Three) representatives are jeopardizing the holding of elections, writes Istraga.ba.

At yesterday's session of the CEC of BiH, issues that were supposed to concern the implementation of early elections in Republika Srpska were not even discussed because the act had not yet arrived.

The CEC is obliged to conduct public procurement procedures for the transport and additional materials for the realization of the elections, but it cannot do so until the funds are approved.

If the funds are not approved for the CEC in the next few days, the date of the early elections, set for November 23, could be postponed.

The Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH, Muhamed Hasanović, stated that Minister Srđan Amidžić is obstructing the approval of the Instruction on securing additional funds for the CEC of BiH by withholding the official seal from him, making the act signed by Hasanović not yet legally valid.

- Following new information, I want to inform the public that the work of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina is blocked, and the reasons for this lie in the political decisions of Milorad Dodik and Minister Srđan Amidžić.

I signed the decision on financing the early elections, but the minister refuses to authenticate it with the official seal, thus preventing its implementation. My signature has never been disputed; the delays are caused by procedural obstructions within the Ministry itself - Hasanović said.

Following the amendments to the Law on Financing State Institutions adopted by High Representative Christian Schmidt in 2022, the Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury has the option to substitute the minister's signature in terms of approving funds to the CEC for the realization of elections, 15 days after the deadline for the minister to approve the instruction expires.

Hasanović waited for days for a statement to clarify the current situation, even though the deadlines had passed, and only after media pressure did he come out and explain the relations within the Ministry. However, this will not speed up the procedures on its own.

The CEC is obliged to conduct six tenders for the procurement of materials related to the transport of election materials, which require a minimum of 40 days to complete, even if there were no appeals during the process decided by the BiH Public Procurement Review Office. If appeals occur during the public procurement process, the time required for tender implementation will be even longer.

According to Istraga's information, the printing of ballots is not threatened because the CEC had previously signed a framework agreement with a company from Kalesija that is still in effect. However, existing contracts do not include transport and the procurement of additional materials, which calls into question the possibility of realizing the public procurement process within the given deadline.

The delay in approving funds to the CEC creates an additional problem because September 18 was the date set for the start of party and candidate registrations for the early elections, which now has to be postponed.

From the current situation, it is clear that the mechanisms at SNSD's disposal allow for absolute paralysis of the system. The announcements that "Trojka" will remove this party's cadres from the Council of Ministers have not materialized due to HDZ's obstructions, which paradoxically faces minimal criticism for such a policy.

Representatives of Western embassies avoid criticizing Dragan Čović, while "Trojka" representatives mostly do so timidly, so as not to alienate those on whom their survival in power after the next parliamentary elections largely depends.

Furthermore, the current situation shows that the system cannot be made functional solely by the decisions of the High Representative, which cannot cover all possibilities for blocking the system.

It shows that the division of power in a way that practically, though not formally, functions as a sum of "representatives" of three ethnic communities leads the country to collapse in the long run and gives a significant advantage to those political forces that base their actions on the destruction of state institutions.

In such a political reality, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) only maintains the system with its decisions, but it is unable to protect it in the long term, or make it capable of self-sustainability without the High Representative's support.