Yes, this is a common “gotcha” when using local-as. By default, when you use that it will append the system-as. This is a loop prevention mechanism. To get around this, update your config with this line:
set protocols bgp neighbor 185.44.83.178 local-as 401903 no-prepend replace-as
It’s important to evaluate your topology and ensure you won’t create any loops by doing this.