How the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Saved Milorad Dodik

For Istraga.ba writes: Milan Blagojević, former judge from Banja Luka and professor of law

How ruined our judiciary is, is also evidenced by another, the latest illegality in the work of the Court of BiH, contained in the decision of that court of 10.10.2025, rendered upon the appeal of the party For Justice and Order - Nebojša Vukanović against the decision of the Central Election Commission (CIK) of BiH by which the application of the SNSD for early presidential elections in the Republic of Srpska in November this year was accepted - an application signed by Milorad Dodik in his capacity as president of the SNSD.

In that proceeding before the CIK, and then also in the appeal of Nebojša Vukanović, the legal question arose whether Milorad Dodik has the right, as president of the SNSD, to sign the said application of that party for the upcoming elections, given that the Court of BiH had sentenced him not only to a prison term of one year, but also imposed a ban on performing the function of President of the RS for a duration of six years, which as a legal consequence of the conviction entails not only a ban on performing functions in legislative, executive, judicial and administrative bodies, but also in any other body (therefore not only in a body of authority) that is fully or partially financed from the public budget.

Therefore, in such a situation, the first task that arose, first before the CIK, was to decide whether the SNSD application was signed by a person who, according to the law and the final criminal verdict of the Court of BiH of 12.6.2025, can be the president of the SNSD.

The CIK decided on this as it did, because it accepted the SNSD application signed by Milorad Dodik in his capacity as president of that party, against which the party of Nebojša Vukanović filed an appeal, contesting that decision with the claim that it is illegal, because the SNSD application could not have been signed by Milorad Dodik in his capacity as president of the party, since the ban on performing functions from the convicting criminal verdict of the Court of BiH against him, by law, also applies to the ban on performing functions in a political party.

This is, therefore, the key legally relevant question that was raised by that appeal before the Court of BiH. Therefore, the Court of BiH had to decide on this question with its decision on the subject appeal of the party of Nebojša Vukanović, because the legality of the CIK decision by which the SNSD application for early presidential elections in the Republic of Srpska was accepted depended precisely on the decision on this matter.

However, instead of that, the Court of BiH illegally and extremely arbitrarily wrote the following in its decision: "The claim of the appeal that the legal consequences of the criminal verdict regarding the imposed prohibition measures against Milorad Dodik extend to the right to perform the function of president of a political party are not relevant in the specific dispute. This legal question can be the subject of discussion in a possible procedure for deleting the registration of the right of representation and representation".

In this way, one division of the Court of BiH (the Administrative Division) not only decided on the subject appeal in an illegal and arbitrary manner, but also equally grossly toyed with (it is not proper to use another word for that) the final criminal convicting verdict of the Court of BiH against Milorad Dodik, avoiding doing its job for which it is solely competent in such a situation, and that is the job to determine, precisely on the occasion of that appeal, the scope of the legal consequences of the final convicting criminal verdict of the Court of BiH against Dodik.

Unfortunately, the Court of BiH, in the previously cited manner, and especially with those words that this should allegedly be decided "in a possible procedure for deleting the registration of the right of representation and representation", illegally and with no good intentions for the rule of law, wanted with its decision to direct the decision on this key question to the wrong address - to the registration court in the Republic of Srpska. And that court decides according to the Law on Associations of the Republic of Srpska, according to which without a request from the SNSD there is no deletion of the registration of data on the president of the party entered in the court register.

Furthermore, that law, for what is not prescribed by it, refers to the subsidiary application of the Law on Non-Contentious Procedure of the Republic of Srpska, and according to that law, a participant in non-contentious proceedings could not be Mr. Vukanović, his party or someone else, so that such proceedings can practically never and will never occur.