BiH: Dodik says seven parties to back his candidate for Republika Srpska president

He said the coalition deal was reached "in just 20 minutes" and branded all who stayed outside it as traitors.

The SNSD's candidate will be Siniša Karan, the entity's higher education minister and former interior minister, who has been under US sanctions since January for helping advance Dodik's secessionist agenda. Karan, a longtime associate of Dodik, began his police career in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia.

Dodik, sentenced to a year in prison for failing to enforce the decisions of the international High Representative, had initially rejected early elections and participation by the SNSD but later accepted them, despite continuing to call the vote illegal and "a confrontation between Muslims and Christians".

He maintains he is still the president of Republika Srpska, but said he no longer signs any official documents to avoid going to prison. Republika Srpska parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic said they had accepted the elections "as a reality that cannot be ignored".

Dodik's coalition claims the support of 75% of voters in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Serb entity and expects Karan to win. His main challenger will be Branko Blanusa, a professor at the University of Banja Luka backed by the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and most opposition groups, while the stance of Banja Luka Mayor Drasko Stanivukovic's Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) remains uncertain as he prepares to launch a new political movement. Some opposition figures believe that Stanivukovic is, in fact, playing a double game and acting as Dodik's fallback option.