Several referendums have been held in Republika Srpska during its existence, whilst others have been proposed but not happened.
History
Although Republika Srpska was not proclaimed until January 1992, a referendum on remaining part of Yugoslavia was held amongst Bosnian Serbs in November 1991, with 98% voting in favour of the proposal, resulting in the establishment of the territory in 1992.
Two further referendums were held in the midst of the Bosnian War; a referendum on the Vance-Owen peace plan was held in May 1993 and rejected by 96% of voters. In August 1994 a referendum was held on the Contact Group plan and rejected by 97% of voters, with the vote denounced by the Contact Group.
Proposed referendums
2011 referendum on the authority of the state judicial system
Ideas about a referendum in the RS were first ventilated by Milorad Dodik during his premiership period in 2006-2008, rekindled after Montenegro's 2006 independence referendum and Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence.
In April 2011 a formal proposal for a referendum was submitted to the RS Assembly, which voted for it and scheduled it for mid-June 2011. The debate on the vote was remarked as confusing, as the matter at stake was unclear: whether independence, opposition to the "imposed decisions" of the High Representative, or (as finally stated) merely the functioning of prosecution offices and courts at central level.
International reactions varied. High Representative Valentin Inzko openly confronted Milorad Dodik over the decision on the referendum, giving him seven days to withdraw the referendum decision, and announcing readiness to use its executive powers to annul the decision and impose sanctions on the RS leaders, up until dismissing Dodik from his post, should the referendum (deemed a violation of the Dayton legal order) proceed. In response, the RS leadership threatened to withdraw all Serb representative from BiH institutions, including the Presidency and Council of Ministers, the Parliament and the judiciary. The decision about calling the referendum did not gather as much support as expected from kin-state Serbia, with President Boris Tadic unwilling to "interfere" in Bosnia's internal affairs, while expressing opposition to OHR's plans and calling for a solution of the crisis through compromise. The debate on the issue at the UN Security Council on 9 May 2011 did not produce a common stance due to the disagreement of Russia with Inzko's position, and the reserves of China. Meanwhile, a publication of the influential think-tank International Crisis Group recommended a more moderate approach and deemed counterproductive to proceed confrontationally against Dodik. Finally, the issue was solved after a meeting between the RS President and the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, in which Dodik agreed to withdraw the referendum in exchange for a "Structured Dialogue on Justice" among Bosnian institutions and the EU in which to discuss the substantial grievances of the RS authorities towards the BiH judiciary. While the EU intervention allowed to avert the crisis and revert the situation to the status quo in early April, the threat of a RS referendum remained in the background, as Dodik never withdrawn the legal acts concerning it.
2016 referendum on the authority of the BiH State Court
A referendum on the authority of the National Court was called for in Republika Srpska and originally planned to be held on 15 November 2015. After legal challenges and postponements, it was indefinitely postponed as of February 2016.
The referendum was announced by surprise, after a period of tensions between the RS authorities and the state judicial institutions linked to the extradition case of the former Bosnian Army commander of Srebrenica, Naser Oric. Oric had been arrested in Switzerland on 10 June 2015 upon an arrest warrant from Serbia. Yet, Swiss authorities extradited him to Bosnia following the request of the authorities of its state of citizenship, who said Bosnia's state prosecution had a case against him. Oric was released soon after. At the same time, the UK had proposed a UN resolution on Srebrenica to the Security Council, which would be later vetoed by Russia following Serbia's request.