Two Serb members of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Central Election Commission (CEC) have refused to step down after the Bosnian Serb entity authorities demanded that they do so in order to delegitimise SIP and transfer its powers for the implementation of the coming elections to an entity body.

Defying High Representative Christian Schmidt's decision to impose technical changes to the BiH election law, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has said that by 20 April the authorities of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity will adopt an entity election law and conduct local elections, due in October, in line with that law, in violation of the BiH constitution and election law.

Last week the RS government called on the two Serb members of SIP to step down but Ljubiša Kalaba and Vanja Bjelica Prutina said on Monday they would not do it.

“I will not resign,” Kalaba said as quoted by the Oslobođenje daily, noting that he did not intend to comment on politicians’ statements.

His colleague Bjelica Prutina recalled that the rights and obligations of SIP members were defined by BiH's election law and cannot be questioned by decisions made at the entity level.

“Legally, I consider the request unlawful, and politically, I consider it a form of pressure on SIP members’ autonomy and impartiality,” Bjelica Prutina said.

The two Serb members of the election commission made the comments after earlier in the day BiH Council of Ministers Deputy Chairman and Dodik's close associate Staša Košarac called on all Serbs in the BiH institutions in charge of elections to resign and thus demonstrate their loyalty to the RS.

SIP members are elected by the BiH House of Representatives, which is the only body that can replace them, but with his recent decision imposing technical changes to BiH's election law, High Representative Christian Schmidt also imposed a regulation that practically protects the status of current SIP members until the expiry of their regular terms in 2027.

All the parties that now form the ruling coalition in BiH are dissatisfied with SIP's composition because they believe that its members are close to political parties that are now in the opposition but have no way to replace them.

Local elections in BiH should be held on 6 October and they will be an important test of the popularity of the currently ruling coalition.