Bosnian Serbs don't recognise official demographic stats

Bosnian Serb politicians oppose the state statistical agency's decision to publish the results of the 2013 census without reaching an agreement on the methodology with the other statistical agencies.

Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian member of the Bosnian Presidency and member of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) says that the announcement was a terrible mistake.

"We will have the opportunity to see the negative consequences that this decision will bring", he told Republika Srpska (RS) news agency.

Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted a census in October 2013 to determine the country's demographical structure, but the results were not released at that time

The agency had announced that the deadline for publishing the census results would be on July 1, but instead published the results on an earlier date.

Velimir Jukic, director of the agency for statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that due to not being able to reach a decision during negotiations, the agency decided to adopt a methodology without a consensus.

"We will inform the Council of Ministers and [EU statistics body] Eurostat ... because they are our partners and they promised to continue to assist us," he said.

RS President Milorad Dodik said that the results are "an attack by Bosnia [against Serbs]."

"We will not participate in it," he added.

There are 430,000 Bosniaks and Croats who live in RS however, the Serbian government does not recognise those people who do not work or study in the country as permanent residents.

Tanja Topic, an analyst from Banja Luka said that the decision will affect the demographic picture of Bosnia.

"The decision not to include these persons as permanent residents is important, especially if it prevents Bosniaks from becoming an absolute majority in Bosnia," Topic said to Balkan Insight.

"If Bosniaks succeed in proving that they make up more than 50 per cent of the total population, this will probably lead to them questioning the current legitimacy of the [1995] Dayton deal," she added, referring to the agreement that split the country into two entities.