Although it is not yet definitive, the campaign for repeated elections for the president of Republika Srpska, which will be held on February 8, apparently, will not take place.
“It was like that until now. The CEC will issue an instruction on the deadlines and sequence of election activities and everything will be defined there, but it is possible that there will be no campaign, because it has already been held before,” a source close to the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina told “Nezavisnim”.
By the way, on the last day of 2025, the CEC decided to call and hold early elections for the president of the Republic of Srpska at 136 polling stations in 17 constituencies. On that occasion, the CEC did not issue an instruction on the deadlines and sequence of election activities, because it is waiting for them to be provided with money for the conduct of repeated elections.
For the repeated elections, the CEC, in accordance with the Election Law of BiH and the Law on Financing of BiH Institutions, requested that they be provided with 600,000 KM.
According to the laws, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH has a deadline of 15 days to provide that money from the day of sending the request, which is December 31, 2025.
However, judging by previous similar cases, the question is whether the money will be provided by February 15, considering that Srđan Amidžić, the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will probably not sign the decision providing the CEC with the money he requested.
In that case, instead of Amidžić, the decision can be signed by Muhamed Hasanović, Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury, but only after the 15-day period in which the minister has to do it has expired.
“Re-elections are conducted on the basis of the same candidate lists and the same sources from the Central Voters’ List that were used in the annulled elections,” the CEC announced recently.
Elections were annulled in 17 local communities and in 136 polling stations, mostly in Doboj, Zvornik and Laktaši. What the repeated elections will look like, it is not clear even to the parties that will participate in them.
Miroslav Bojić, the mayor of Laktaš and the president of the SNSD City Committee in that local community, said that they will hold those repeated elections, but that there are many unknowns.
“We have to see how to inform the voters, because we are in an absurd situation, caused by the imposition of certain decisions by Kristijan Šmit. I promise that nothing will change in Laktaši and that people who support our policies will continue to do so. Everyone will see for themselves in the repeated elections on February 8,” said Bojić, as reported by RTRS.
As a reminder, after Milorad Dodik, at that time the president of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on public office, the CEC announced early elections for the president of Republika Srpska.
Those elections were held on November 23, and Siniša Karan (SNSD) won with a margin of about 9,500 votes, while Branko Blanuša (SDS) was in second place.
Blanuša and the parties supporting him did not recognize that result and asked the CEC to repeat the elections, and the CEC itself decided to repeat them at 136 polling stations due to irregularities.
About 85,000 citizens will have the right to vote in those repeated elections.
The most irregularities were found in Zvornik, where the elections will be repeated in as many as 53 polling stations, and 35,533 voters will have the right to vote.
Next is Doboj, where voting will take place at 31 polling stations, where 17,764 citizens have the right to vote.
In Laktaši, the elections were canceled at 24 polling stations, and in that local community more than 17,000 voters will be able to exercise their right to vote, they write. Independent newspaper.
