Constitutional Court Sides With Serb MP, Ruznic Reinstated

The Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) today annulled every decision the Una-Sana Canton (USK) Assembly passed at an emergency overnight session on August 10, including the removal of premier Mustafa Ruznic and the appointment of a new government under Ibrahim Dizdaric. The ruling came on a request from Mladen Lonic, deputy speaker of the USK Assembly and the only lawmaker of Serb nationality in the current convocation, who had asked the court to protect the vital national interest of Serbs. It is a rare case anywhere in the region: the vote of a single Serb representative in a Bosniak-Croat federal unit of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided the fate of a cantonal government, in a reversal that took just ten days to play out.

In brief

• The FBiH Constitutional Court annulled the decisions of the USK Assembly’s August 10 session, returning Ruznic to the premier’s post
• The request was filed by Mladen Lonic, the only lawmaker of Serb nationality in the USK Assembly
• On August 21 the court first rejected a temporary measure on the same request, with a final ruling on the merits expected within 30 days

What Lonic Challenged

Lonic filed his request to protect the vital national interest of the Serb people after the emergency USK Assembly session that opened on August 10 and ran into the early hours of August 11. His first objection targeted the reshuffled Committee for Elections and Appointments, whose new membership included no representative of the Serb people. As an additional procedural violation, he argued that Assembly speaker Nisvet Jusic had refused to let the peoples’ caucuses declare themselves on the first item of the agenda, which he said breached the Assembly’s own rules of procedure.

At that same session, Ruznic’s government, from the NES party, was voted out, and Ibrahim Dizdaric of the Pomak party was elected premier. The new majority in the USK Assembly was built from the SDA, Pomak, DF and SBiH, plus one lawmaker from NiP, while NES, SDP and NiP as a party were pushed out of power. The new government did include one minister of Serb nationality, a fact the new majority pointed to as proof that the vital interest of Serbs was not under threat.

Why the Court Reversed Course in Three Days

The shift makes sense once it is clear the court had already ruled on two separate requests from the same lawmaker. On August 21, in case U-27/26, the FBiH Constitutional Court’s Council for the Protection of Vital Interests rejected a temporary measure through which Lonic had sought to suspend enforcement of the August 10 decisions until the case was resolved. After that rejection, Dizdaric’s government carried on working at full strength, and the court had signaled it would issue a final ruling on the merits within 30 days.

At the time, premier Dizdaric confirmed the rejection of the temporary measure to Faktor.ba, in remarks also carried by N1 BiH.

“The Constitutional Court rejected the temporary measure and will proceed on the merits, issuing a final decision within 30 days. The government is working at full strength.”

Today’s ruling shows that, in the meantime, the court had gone on to examine the substance of the request, not just the temporary measure, and this time it sided with Lonic. Under the decision, all the decisions from the August 10 session, along with any later decision that relies on them, are not to be enforced or published in official gazettes until a final ruling is reached. On a temporary basis, until that final ruling, both the removal of the old government and the appointment of the new one are reinstated, which in practice means Ruznic and his former cabinet return to power, while the new ministers and premier Dizdaric are left without their posts for now.

A Canton With Two Governments

Since August 10, Una-Sana Canton has effectively had two governments running in parallel. Ruznic refused to hand over power until the court ruled, while Dizdaric’s ministers moved into the ministries in the meantime and took over their work. After today’s court ruling, Ruznic issued a statement describing the institutional chaos in the canton as an attempted power grab carried out outside the constitution.

“Today’s decision by the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH is not my personal victory, but a victory of the rule of law and the constitutional order over political violence.”

He added a shorter, sharper verdict on the entire USK dispute.

“The attempted constitutional coup has failed.”

For the region and for Serbia, the story out of Bihac shows that the mechanism protecting vital national interest, written into the Federation of BiH’s constitution precisely to shield minority peoples in the cantons, can still genuinely decide the fate of an executive government, even when it rests on the vote of a single lawmaker. The Constitutional Court’s final word on the merits is still to come, within the deadline the court set for itself on August 21.