IT IS OVERLOOKED THAT POLITICAL PARTY IS SUBJECT OF PRIVATE LAW

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 21 /SRNA/ - A political party, including the SNSD, is a subject of private law, and the party president is not “an official,” as the party does not exercise any form of public authority; yet this is overlooked, lawyer Goran Bubić told SRNA.

Regarding the Court of BiH’s communication to the Central Election Commission /CEC/ concerning the legal consequences of President Milorad Dodik’s conviction, Bubić noted that the SNSD is not financed from public funds.

“Not only does the legal framework /Article 3 and others of the Law on Political Organizations of Republika Srpska/ point to this legal status of the party, but so does the case law of the Constitutional Court of BiH and the European Court of Human Rights, as we detailed in a recent statement by the defense attorney,” Bubić said.

He emphasized that the CEC of BiH does not have actual authority over the registration of a political party as a legal entity or a subject of law, nor over the registration of the party’s legal representatives.

He added that the party’s registration for the electoral process is a separate matter, but this is unrelated to its legal subjectivity, explaining that a party may choose to register for elections, but it is not obliged to do so.

“According to Article 15, paragraph 2 of the Law on Political Organizations of Republika Srpska, the Court of General Jurisdiction at the seat of the Higher Court corresponding to the party’s headquarters decides on the registration of the party’s establishment and any changes to its data. In this case, that is the Court of General Jurisdiction in Banja Luka. The Court of BiH evidently ignores this, even though it cannot do so ex lege,” Bubić stated.

According to him, the Court of BiH did reject an evidently justified defense motion to delegate jurisdiction to the judiciary of Republika Srpska in the criminal proceedings against President Dodik, but it cannot arbitrarily disregard the provisions regarding the actual jurisdiction of the court in Banja Luka concerning changes to a political party’s registry data.

He emphasized that only the competent court can decide on the validity of such a motion.

“The CEC of BiH does not have the authority to file such a motion. A motion filed by an unauthorized person must be dismissed without any consideration of the merits. Last but not least, this is not merely an attempt to ‘delegate’ authority to a body lacking jurisdiction, but this is also an example of humiliating the judiciary of Republika Srpska, which is the only one actually competent in this legal matter,” Bubić said.