The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina held a raffle on Monday, to award a mandate to a Serb delegate at the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament. The PDP was drawn from the raffle balls, which means that Nenad Vukovic will be this party's delegate at the House.

Based on the Decision to determine the results of the intermediate elections in the House of Peoples from the RS, on May 30, 2024, it was determined that two candidate lists: the candidate list of the PDP – Party of Democratic Progress and the candidate list of Ranka Peric Romic, have an identical number of votes – 12. That is why it was necessary to carry out a raffle procedure for the allocation of one delegate mandate in the House of Peoples from RS.

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) has three delegates in the Serb Caucus, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) has one, and today it was decided between Snjezana Novakovic-Bursac (SNSD) and Nenad Vukovic (PDP).

This procedure came about after the PDP appealed to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina when one ballot was declared invalid during the election of delegates from the ranks of the Serb people in the RS National Assembly. The Central Election Commission then declared the ballot valid, but the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina annulled it.

“We need to stress that we had a very transparent process when it comes to today's raffle. This is an opportunity to reject all spins related to the procedure itself and possible rigging and to reject all stories about cold-hot balls or bigger and smaller balls. Luck has decided and I and the PDP are very happy and especially pleased that today we have a delegate in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament. Now, political circumstances concerning the BiH level can change. You will recall that we announced the steps we will take if we get this mandate. We're sticking to our plans,” Vukovic pointed out.

He said that “it is not their intention to come to power as soon as possible and sit in armchairs”, but that they want to try to dissolve, what he called the worst composition of the Council of Ministers since its establishment to date. He stated that they do not guarantee that they will have a majority for this, but that the PDP believes the issue should be raised.

SNSD delegate will not withdraw from seat

A House of Peoples delegate, Radovan Kovacevic, from the SNSD, said that a farce was taking place at the election watchdog's seat.

“The situation we warned about – had happened. An order was clearly issued to destroy the electoral will of the people. It is the RS National Assembly and not the CEC, not some raffle balls, that are competent. We saw that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided on the same case three times and made the same decision twice, the third time they rejected the SNSD's appeal by a direct order,” Kovacevic said.

“None of the delegates from the RS who were elected to the RS National Assembly will withdraw from their position”, Kovacevic recalled the words of the RS President, Milorad Dodik.

For him, the only acceptable solution could be to repeat the procedure, but at the RS National Assembly and especially not at the CEC seat via raffle.