"We have the right to our Election Law. We have the right to regulate the issue of local elections, elections for the National Assembly, and the President of the Republika Srpska," stated Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska, in an interview with banjaluka.net, commenting on the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH to suspend the Election Law of Republika Srpska.

Dodik described the Constitutional Court as a political body making political decisions.

“The Central Election Commission has no constitutional or any other right to conduct elections in Republika Srpska. Even according to the Election Law of BiH, it is stated that the CEC conducts elections for deputies in the House of Representatives and for members of the Presidency of BiH and sets policies for other levels of government. This means that elections must be democratic, transparent, fair, and honest. Then the Republika Commission should conduct elections accordingly,” explained Dodik.

He accused the Constitutional Court of altering the Constitution to create conditions that could later deem the Election Law unconstitutional.

“The Constitutional Court does not function according to the BiH Constitution. It stipulates that the president and vice president of the Constitutional Court should be elected from the entities, not from two foreign judges. They have destroyed even that; they are massive violators of the Constitution. That's their problem. We have decided to participate in the elections under this imposed law because we don't want to end up in a traumatic situation,” stated Dodik.

He further expressed that the situation in BiH is such that Republika Srpska is waiting for the right moment, particularly the victory of Trump, to secure a better position.

“I think we have a good positioning in this regard. We are preparing for the time when Trump comes to power. We know that in the next three months, after Trump is inaugurated, we must reach him. Our story needs to be on his table. Regarding what is happening here with sanctions and everything else. On the other hand, Europe will look entirely different. The power and arrogance of some countries, demonstrated through Schmidt, will surely disappear. A peace process with Russia regarding Ukraine will start, and it will be an entirely new atmosphere of agreement and cooperation, not exclusivity and conditions. Therefore, we have a series of good opportunities. That's why we said our Election Law will be applied from January 1 next year,” Dodik emphasized.

He expected the Constitutional Court of BiH to act this way, motivated by political agendas.

“Political decisions of the Constitutional Court are always dangerous. They always backfire on the one whose court it is, and that is BiH,” concluded Dodik.

In the interview, Dodik also commented on relations with partners at the BiH level after the budget was adopted. He noted that SNSD operates in a way that does not allow systemic laws that change the character of BiH.

“The budget is an annual document. Whether we have it or not, there are ways to finance it. Therefore, we will allow these short-term things. But those systemic things, related to constitutional arrangements, we cannot agree on. Because there is a structure in Sarajevo that wants to use the significant presence of the international factor, even the European path, to grab more centralization of BiH,” said Dodik.

He emphasized that Republika Srpska primarily supports the European path and has contributed to it by voting for several laws to obtain candidate status.

“But we are the ones who also say it is impossible for a country to be a negotiator while having a false high representative. Unlike Sarajevo, which says it needs a high representative. We don't fit into that. We want to sit down and say – people, we want to stay in BiH, but you cannot expect to strip Republika Srpska of its powers. Let's create something functional,” said Dodik.

He questioned why it is a problem for Republika Srpska to be visible in the European process. He cited the example of Belgium, where regional ministers attend meetings, not federal ones.

“Why can't we agree on that? Why do you want to have a central minister and push for centralization? That's the whole story. The talk about conflict, war, is entirely redundant. There's nothing to it. Those who threaten war blame us for being for war,” said the President of Republika Srpska.

He noted that during the process of reclaiming competencies, they saw that the world, unfortunately, united around Muslim goals and that any action by Republika Srpska would further unify Muslims and the West.

“We haven't forgotten those goals; we leave them but will return to them when we see minimal chances for success. Then we said we would go for peaceful separation, and they declared it a war issue. We still think we should sit down and talk. To say this is not working, it's hard because they won't return to the original Dayton,” said Dodik.

He expressed a desire for an agreement to avoid conflict, celebrating, or throwing stones at each other.

“What else? We followed that logic, and they declared it a reason for war. We said okay, we'll stop with that. But do you think it won't come up again? Of course, it will,” concluded Dodik.