Speaker: Electoral Threshold Will Remain Three Percent

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/FOREIGN MINISTRY/Ognjen Stevanovic/MO)

The Serbian speaker, Ivica Dacic, said in an Aug. 27 comment on Serbia's government-opposition dialogue that the national electoral threshold would remain three percent, and that it would not go back to five percent.

"They (the opposition) raised a racket when the threshold was lowered, while essentially being very happy. Now, they all want to know if it will go back to being five percent. No, it won't," Dacic said for the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS).

Dacic said that the inter-party dialogue between the government and the part of the opposition that did not want foreign representatives to take part in the process, was going well, but that "the other track is late and well behind this one." The Serbian speaker said that the European Parliament was expected to deliver a text on electoral requirements by Sept. 1, so that it could be discussed on Sept. 17 or Sept. 18.

Dacic also described as "unrealistic" some of the suggestions made by the opposition parties that did not want foreign representatives to take part in the talks. "The general idea is that the process be completed six months ahead of the election, more precisely, by early October," Dacic said.