ODIHR Urges Applying Recommendations to Level Playing Field in Next Election

Douglas Wake, ODIHR (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Douglas Wake, head of an observation mission of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said on Oct. 7 that he could see the openness of Serbian institutions to working on applying the mission's recommendations in its report on April elections in Serbia, but that the recommendations being applied were mostly technical, while virtually no progress was made on those pertaining to essential issues.

"A large number of the recommendations that were applied were technical and we stressed that clearly in the report. Unfortunately, the recommendations pertaining to fundamental issues in Serbia, like access to media, the availability of funds to all political actors in a campaign, the use of public resources, and the issue of pressure on voters, are areas where we have seen limited or no progress. We hope that this will be given attention in the future," Wake told BETA in an interview.

Wake stressed that it was necessary for all interested parties to get involved as soon as possible so changes could be visible by the next election cycle. "It is important for these changes to happen as soon as possible so all of the players in the electoral process know the rules of the game, have a chance to familiarize themselves with them and compete on a level playing field," Wake said.

He visited Belgrade last week to present the report with colleagues from ODIHR in Warsaw. They met with representatives of ministries, the Serbian Electoral Commission, the Anti-Corruption Agency, parliament, courts, civil society and media.