The National Assembly of the autonomous Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) on Friday voted to call for a referendum on a federal court’s decision to ban the entity’s former president from holding office.

In a late-night session, the assembly rejected the decision of BiH’s Central Election Commission to terminate Milorad Dodik’s mandate, declaring the move unconstitutional and politically motivated. The body rejected the authority of BiH’s courts and the Office of the High Representative Christian Schmidt, framing their decisions as an attack on Republika Srpska’s autonomy.

The lawmakers established a Referendum Commission and set the referendum’s date as October 25, 2025, where citizens will be asked whether they accept the decisions of the Court of BiH, Christian Schmidt and the CEC to revoke Dodik’s mandate.

The session follows the decision of the Court of BiH on August 1 to sentence Milorad Dodik to one year in prison and bar him from serving as the entity’s president for six years on the grounds that he did not comply with the High Representative’s decisions.

These developments highlight ongoing tensions between the federal government and the Serb-dominated entity. In December of 2023, Dodik threatened secession from the union, whereas in May of 2024, he spearheaded the campaign against UN General Assembly’s resolution to recognize the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

The country’s current framework was established in the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which effectively ended the Bosnian War, created a federal Bosnia and Herzegovina with an Office of the High Representative as an international overseeing institution. The country is comprised of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Bosniak and Croat majority, and Republika Srpska with a Serb majority, which share federal power through a system of ethnic quotas and a tripartite presidency.

To avoid future attempts of full secession of any of the entities, particularly from Republika Srpska, in 1992 the UN Security Council passed resolution 787. The resolution explicitly rejected territorial changes through use of force and emphasized BiH’s territorial sovereignty, leading to the framework that the Dayton Accords established in 1995.