Bosniaks Veto Bosnian Serb Courts Referendum

Bosniak delegates to the Council of Peoples in the Republika Srpska assembly on Thursday used their veto powers to block the assembly's decision last week to hold a referendum on the authority of the state judicial institutions and the Office of the High Representative.

Mujo Hadziomerovic, chief of the Bosniak caucus in the Council of Peoples, said they had evoked a constitutional safeguard, concerning "protection of their vital national interest", since Bosniaks believe the referendum would violation Bosnia's constitutions and the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord.

Bosnian Croat delegates to the Council of Peoples did not evoke the same mechanism. Representatives of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, failed to show up at the session on Thursday.

In line with the mechanism concerning the "protection of vital national interests", the disputed decision will now go to the entity's constitutional court.

Hadziomerovic said that Bosniak delegates doubt that the court - which they have called under the influence of the ruling bloc in that entity - will uphold their complaint.

However, if disappointed, they plan to appeal to the highest legal body in the country, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assembly in the mainly Serbian entity voted to hold a referendum on July 16, acting on the request of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, who said it was the only way to draw the attention to the poor work of the state judiciary.  

In the referendum, Republika Srpska citizens would be asked whether they support the "anti-constitutional and unauthorized laws imposed by the High Representative of the international community, especially the laws imposed relating to the Court and the Prosecutor's office of Bosnia...