Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has been successfully undermining constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina by now but it is questionable how much he can go on with that now as a member of the state Presidency, said Bodo Weber, German analyst and expert for the Balkans.
Speaking for Deutsche Welle, Weber commented on the victory that Dodik achieved in the run for Bosnia's tripartite Presidency this weekend in the general election.
“He has been working for the past ten, actually 12-13 years, on undermining of the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It remains unclear to me why this time he aimed for the post of the Serb member of Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, but we are yet to see what he's going to do there,” he stressed, explaining that the state Presidency competencies are in a way restricted.
Milorad Dodik is now outgoing President of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, and the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) the strongest party in that part of the country. According to the preliminary election results, Dodik won in the race for the state Presidency, beating his main rival and the opposition's candidate Mladen Ivanic.
Dodik has been advocating secession of the RS and its independence, often saying this territory will merge with Serbia during this century.
Asked to comment Dodik's first statement following the preliminary election result, when he said the first thing he would do as the Presidency member would be the visit to President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, Weber said this was a matter of the Belgrade-Dodik relations and how much is Dodik dependant on Belgrade.
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However, he doesn't think the new Serb member of Bosnia's Presidency would go there for directives but to demonstrate some kind of alliance.
As for the election of Croat candidate in the Presidency, social-democrat Zeljko Komsic, who won in the race with Dragan Covic, the leader of the strongest Croat party in Bosnia, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Weber said this situation might lead to the HDZ BiH insisting on its own entity in the country which could radicalise the internal relations in Bosnia.
