Dodik's referendum did not take place on Sunday

"Do you accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner Christian Schmidt and the rulings of the unconstitutional Court of BiH issued against the president of Republika Srpska, as well as the decision of the Central Election Commission to revoke President Dodik’s mandate?" read the referendum question, which the ruling majority in the RS National Assembly (NSRS) defined on August 23, when it also decided that the referendum would be held on October 25.

In the meantime, the government abandoned the referendum plan; Dodik accepted the verdict of the Court of BiH, which sentenced him to one year in prison and six years of disqualification from holding the presidential office, and the entity parliament annulled all laws adopted in the past year and a half that had previously been declared anti-Dayton and unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of BiH.

The laws that led to Dodik’s prosecution before the Court of BiH—which ended with a guilty verdict against him—were also annulled.

Dodik stepped down from his position as entity president, and the NSRS appointed his longtime adviser, Ana Triaic-Babic, as acting president of Republika Srpska, who is to remain in that role until a new president is elected in early elections scheduled for November 23.

At the beginning of October, Dodik said the referendum was only postponed and would “most likely be held on January 9.”

The opposition Serb Democratic Party (SDS) stated that the announcement of the referendum was merely “a tool for bargaining and manipulating the people’s emotions.”

“They traded it away for their personal interests, just like the referendums that were supposed to be held in 2010 and 2015. The people of Republika Srpska are not a subservient people who can be deceived like street gamblers deceive their marks. Our people are a state-building people who recognize betrayal,” said SDS official Branko Blanusa.

He emphasized that the authorities gave up on the referendum while the National Assembly “did not even bother” to formally annul the decision to hold it.

“They have accepted Christian Schmidt, renounced state property, embraced all decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, accepted the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, and appointed Ana Trisic-Babic as acting president of RS,” Blanusa reminded.

According to him, the next step will be for the RS authorities to accept Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry into NATO.

“The next step is an invitation from NATO for membership. Whom did they ask? Where is the referendum? They didn’t ask anyone, and there won’t be a referendum, because in the coming days they’ll be rewarded by being removed from the American ‘blacklist,’” Blanusa stressed.