Analyst: Independent International Commission Should Check Vote

Dusan Reljic (Beta/Milos Miskov)

Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs' Brussels office Dusan Reljic said on June 23 that an independent international commission should be tasked with evaluating Serbia's election and the entire electoral process in Serbia to avoid the suspension of negotiations on EU membership and prevent the further deepening of political divisions in the country.

"The political reputation of the Serbian authorities has again fallen in the eyes of the greater part of the EU's public to where it was toward the end of Milosevic's rule. If one wants to stop the further deepening of political divisions in Serbia and prevent negotiations on membership in the EU from stopping, than an independent, external commission needs to check whether parliamentary elections in Serbia were legitimate," Reljic told BETA.

Reljic said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic "with his undoubtedly conspicuous targetted statements, has aligned himself with U.S. President Trump, supported China in cracking down on demonstrators in Hong Kong, continued to glorify Russian President Putin, and avoided smoothing out relations with the EU after stating that EU solidarity 'is just a fairytale'."