The President of Bosnia's Serb dominated part said that his political opponents are planning to steal trucks with the ballots for the October 7 general election in order for the voting process in Banja Luka to be proclaimed invalid.

Milorad Dodik is the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the ruling party in one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities, Republika Srpska (RS), which he is also President of.  

The SNSD is strongly opposed by a coalition of Bosnian Serb parties under the name Alliance for Changes, which represents Bosnian Serbs at the state level.  

Dodik’s allegation is only the latest in a spat that has been ongoing between the two sides for years.  

According to Dodik, 50 trucks containing ballots are supposed to arrive in Banja Luka ahead of the election and the opposition in the RS plans to kidnap them.  

“They intend to seize those trucks, and them seizing just one would be enough,” Dodik said.  

“If they don’t manage to do that, they will, on October 6, a day before the election, organise demonstrations and talk about politics. Then foreigners in Sarajevo will say that this was a breach of the pre-election silence and the election results in Banja Luka will be declared invalid,” he told the Republika Srpska Public broadcaster, RTRS.