Milorad Dodik's Private Referendum and Spreading Fear Among Disloyal Serbs

The referendum and the question of confirming January 9 as the Day of Republika Srpska have been unnecessarily inflamed. Everything plays into the hands of Milorad Dodik because referendum tensions bring him a sure election victory, primarily in Banja Luka. Whether it is the ninth, eighth, or tenth of January is the least important. Dodik has been handed a ball on the volley for a perfect hit in the elections, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

On the other hand, one could conclude that Dodik's referendum is an excellent confirmation of Bosnian statehood. His entity referendum confirms that the RS is part of BiH. With this referendum, Milorad Dodik acknowledges the referendum of February 29, 1992, because he confirms the day of the entity within the state of BiH.

Second, Dodik's majority in the National Assembly of the RS announced a few days ago a change to the Law on Holidays. This gave their leader a bit more room for a fallback, which he will need badly in the face of an irritated international community.

But Dodik's referendum is also full of contradictions. The president of the Commission for Conducting the Referendum is Siniša Karan, the general secretary of Milorad Dodik's presidential cabinet. Therefore, this referendum could be called a semi-private referendum of Milorad Dodik. At the very least, it would be labeled a conflict of interest everywhere, because the referendum is contracted by the entity president and organized by the secretary of his cabinet.

Nevertheless, above the referendum looms the fear of chaos and conflict. In Republika Srpska, it is not only the non-Serb population that is afraid. During this referendum weekend, fear among Serbs, ordinary people in the RS, is visible on social media. There are too many threats from their fellow countrymen that they must go out to vote in the referendum.

Luka Petrović, a candidate for mayor of Trebinje, confirmed this type of fear spreading through Republika Srpska when he said with a threatening tone: "We will check who went to the referendum and who did not." This statement by Petrović resonated frighteningly throughout the entire RS.

On the other hand, the referendum is denied by everyone in the opposition, but they will all go out and vote. Simply put, the fact is that Milorad Dodik governs the RS through fear as his strongest weapon. Even Mladen Ivanić does not dare to refuse to participate in the referendum, although he calls it a pre-election trick and an unnecessary act. Any refusal could cost him the elections. Thus, Dodik not only organized the referendum for his own political points, but he also forced the entire opposition to go to the polls and in a way show him complete obedience.