The Government of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity informed the public that the decision of the international community’s peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, to introduce a new criminal offence "Bribery in elections" in the RS Criminal Code is not in line with the entity Constitution and that it cannot produce a legal effect on the entity's territory.

“The RS Constitution prescribes in Article 70 that the competence of the RS National Assembly is to enact laws. The procedure for passing laws is clearly prescribed and established and only laws passed according to that procedure can be applied in the territory of the RS,” reads the statement, which further adds that the entry into force of the law is also prescribed by the provisions of the RS Constitution “which stipulate that all laws are published in the corresponding official gazette, i.e. the Official Gazette of the RS and enter into force on the eighth day from the date of publication at the earliest”.

Also, the RS Government announced that all issues that are the subject of the decision have already been prescribed by the Criminal Code which is, according to them, fully harmonized with the recommendations and directives of the European Union and international conventions.

“According to everything stated above, the Decision of Christian Schmidt is not in accordance with the RS Constitution or legal order and cannot produce any legal effect on the territory of the RS”, the statement on the RS Government’s official Twitter account concludes.

Apart from the Government, the RS President Milorad Dodik also rejected the High Representative’s decision. He said that Schmidt is not the High Representative and that he sees Schmidt’s decision as a “criminal attempt to impose the decision of a person who has no legitimacy”.