BELGRADE, August 6. /TASS/. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina has ended the mandate of President Milorad Dodik of Republika Srpska (one of the country’s two constituent entities) due to his conviction and ordered an early election, the Dnevni Avaz newspaper reported.

According to the paper, the decision was made unanimously.

The election authority will now set a deadline for an appeal, after which Republika Srpska will have to hold an early election within 90 days.

On August 1, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Appeals Panel of the Court upheld the first-instance verdict, sentencing Dodik to six years in prison and banning him from engaging in political activities for refusing to comply with the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt. The Republika Srpska leader said that he would continue to perform his duties without triggering an early election in the entity. He added that Republika Srpska "expected to get full support" from Serbia and Russia, and condemned the sentence as "an attack initiated by the EU."

As per the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two primary entities: the Muslim-Croatian Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51% of the territory) and Republika Srpska (49% of the territory), as well as the Brcko District. Three main peoples — the Bosniaks (Slavs converted to Islam), the Serbs (Orthodox) and the Croatians (Catholics) — are represented proportionally in the government.

The country is essentially governed through a high representative (a post created by the 1995 Dayton Agreement), who is appointed by the steering committee of the Peace Implementation Council after approval by the UN Security Council. However, in May 2021, the ambassadors of the steering committee countries decided to appoint Christian Schmidt as the new high representative without approval from the UN Security Council. The Republika Srpska leadership, Russia and China do not recognize Schmidt’s legitimacy.