CRTA Claims Did Not Receive Answer to Whether Referendum Is Safe Because of Covid

Rasa Nedeljkov (Beta/Media center)

The program director of the Center for Research, Transparency and Responsibility (CRTA), Rasa Nedeljkov, said on Jan. 11 that the organization had not received a reply from any institution on whether holding a referendum for changing the Constitution on Jan. 16 was safe from the standpoint of the coronavirus epidemic.

Nedeljkov told the N1 TV station that the Republic Electoral Commission had adopted several measures "which in some way stop the spread of the disease" but that it remained unknown what steps would be taken in response to the omicron strain which had not peaked yet when the Commission adopted these measures.

He said that this was another thing that "casts a shadow and practically proves that the referendum on the Constitution is not an important thing and not a political subject."

"This speaks about the political structure and political maturity of the political system in Serbia. Imagine any developed democratic state in Europe and the world where the topmost legal act is supposed to be changed without having been the most important political subject for months and perhaps years prior. In Serbia, if we look at the media, the referendum is not a subject. The referendum is the latest subject in a series of subjects, all other subjects are far more represented in the media," Nedeljkov said adding that this "is political irresponsibility."