Bosnia on Thursday called an election to replace the banned president of its Serb statelet, who refuses to step down after defying the international envoy in charge of the peace deal that ended the 1990s war.
Speaking at a press conference in Sarajevo, the head of Bosnia's electoral commission, Irena Hadziabdic, said an early presidential election for the Republika Srpska (RS) statelet would be held on November 23.
It is the latest development in one of the country's worst political crises since its split from Yugoslavia triggered a war that ended 30 years ago.
RS president Milorad Dodik was stripped of office earlier this month and banned from politics for six years by a court for flouting decisions made by former German parliamentarian and international High Representative Christian Schmidt. The high representative's role was created following the 1995 Dayton peace accords with the aim of preventing the multi-ethnic country of sliding back into civil war.
"These elections are meaningless and will not take place in the RS," the 66-year-old Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serbian entity, after the announcement.
"I'm not threatening violence, but I believe people will take to the streets and demonstrate," he said.
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Dodik last week initiated a vote in the SR's parliament on holding a referendum on October 25 to ask the region's residents whether they support Schmidt and agree with the verdict.
Read moreBosnia's Serbian statelet calls referendum on federal court verdict against leader
The parliament has rejected both Schmidt's authority as the ultimate interpreter of the Dayton peace deal and also Dodik's verdict. It has also opposed an early presidential election in the region and forbidden local election campaigning.
Bosnia's 1992-1995 conflict left nearly 100,000 people dead and divided the country into two largely autonomous entities, the Serb-majority RS and Croat-Bosniak Federation.
Both are held together by a weak central government and overseen by an internationally backed envoy, who has the power to impose and cancel laws.
Dodik has, during his almost two decades in power, routinely challenged the envoy and regularly talks of splitting the RS from Bosnia through an independence vote.
Dodik has been the target of sanctions from the United States and Britain for undermining the peace deal and Bosnia's stability.
However, he remains deeply entrenched in power.
The current crisis began earlier this year when Bosnia's courts found him guilty of failing to comply with Schmidt's orders.
Dodik retaliated with a series of controversial laws, which were later struck down by the courts, including one that barred Bosnian federal police and the judiciary from RS.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
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