Is the Troika appointing Marin Vukoja as a constitutional judge, Dodik remains irreplaceable in the Council of Ministers of BiH!

Written by: Istraga.ba

Do you remember the story about the fourth SNSD delegate in the Serb club? That delegate, due to whom Milorad Dodik's party is irreplaceable in the Council of Ministers of BiH, now directly depends on the appointment of Marin Vukoja.

Namely, at the last plenary session of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the agenda included an appeal by the PDP requesting the annulment of the decision of the Court of BiH, which had previously ruled that the "disputed" ballot recognized by the CEC cannot be recognized, due to which SNSD gained a fourth delegate in the Serb Club of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. And that fourth SNSD delegate guarantees Dodik's party survival in power at the BiH level, regardless of the views of his coalition partners from the Troika and HDZ BiH.

“AP-81-23 (Party of Democratic Progress – PDP)”, was written in the agenda of the plenary session of the Constitutional Court of BiH held on July 13.

However, no decision was made in this case. Four judges were in favor of accepting the PDP's appeal, while three were against. Since five votes were needed to make a decision, the Constitutional Court of BiH could not reach a decision in this case, so everything was postponed until the next session of the Constitutional Court of BiH. We will return to the details of the session and the next session later, after briefly recalling the case of the "fourth delegate".

The National Assembly of the RS elects five delegates to the Serb Club of the House of Peoples of the PA BiH. Given the decision-making method in the House of Peoples of the PA BiH (entity voting), at least two of the five delegates from the Serb Club would have to support (or abstain from) a certain decision for it to be adopted. Precisely because of this, SNSD sought to gain four delegates in the Serb Club in order to have a control mechanism when making decisions at the BiH level. For example, for the Council of Ministers of BiH or a minister to be dismissed, the decision on dismissal must be voted on by a majority of representatives in the House of Representatives, and a majority (eight) of delegates in the House of Peoples, with the condition that in both cases there must be an entity majority. The opposition from the RS in the House of Representatives of the PA BiH has five representatives, which is an entity majority, while in the House of Peoples everything depended on the "fourth" SNSD delegate.

We recall that during the voting in the National Assembly of the RS, two lists, the first SNSD's and the second PDP's, each had 12 votes. However, the Election Commission of the NSRS, which conducted the election of delegates for the House of Peoples, declared invalid one ballot that was in favor of the PDP list led by Nenad Vuković. After that ballot was declared invalid, Vuković fell to eleven votes, while Snježana Novaković-Bursać from SNSD remained with twelve votes.

This was followed by an appeal to the CEC, whose members, at a session held on December 5 last year, determined ex officio that the ballot was valid. After that, SNSD filed an appeal with the Court of BiH. The Court of BiH then granted SNSD's appeal, ordering the CEC to decide again. The CEC then again decided that the ballot was valid. SNSD again filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, which ultimately annulled the CEC's decision and ordered a decision to be made to invalidate the disputed ballot. Thus, SNSD gained a fourth delegate in the Serb Club, while the opposition remained with one delegate. Thanks to that delegate, Milorad Dodik today has a control package when making decisions in the House of Peoples of the PA BiH.

The opposition PDP, after all this, filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court of BiH, which was considered at the last plenary session. However, no decision was made because, as we have already stated, four judges were in favor of accepting the PDP's appeal, while three were against. Among the three judges who, according to information from Istraga, were against were Zlatko Knežević (judge from the RS) and Valerija Galić, President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, close to HDZ BiH. When the ratio is 4:3, a decision cannot be made, unless the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH is in the group of four judges.

“Exceptionally, when fewer than the total number of nine judges participate in making a decision at a plenary session, due to reasons specified in Article 90 paragraph (1) or Article 98 of these rules, as well as when not all judges have been elected, or when a judge/judges are prevented from performing their function for a longer period due to illness, if at least five judges do not vote identically on the proposed decision on the request/appeal, in the case from Article 98, the decision on that decision will be postponed to one of the following sessions but no longer than six months, and if the same situation repeats after the expiration of that period, the vote of the President of the Constitutional Court, or the judge replacing him, shall be counted double,” states the Rules of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

Therefore, for the double vote of the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH to have effect, she must be on the side of the four judges (provided the Court is not fully staffed). At the last plenary session, Valerija Galić was on the side of the three judges who wanted to reject the PDP's appeal. However, everything could change at the next session of the Constitutional Court of BiH, if Marin Vukoja (HDZ) is appointed as a judge. Namely, if Vukoja is appointed, he will certainly follow Valerija Galić when voting. In that case (if the NSRS does not appoint another judge from that entity by then), the ratio when voting on the PDP's appeal would be 4:4, and Valerija Galić would, with her double vote, secure the necessary majority to reject the appeal. In this way, SNSD would remain with four delegates, and Milorad Dodik's party would remain in power at the BiH level until the end of this mandate.