Parliamentary Committee Members on Elections: Vucic Promoter of Progressives, Elections Irregular

The members of the Serbian parliament’s Election Campaign Supervisory Committee from the opposition (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The members of the Serbian parliament’s Election Campaign Supervisory Committee from the opposition assessed on Dec. 13 that the campaign passed in “completely unequal conditions,” marked by President Aleksandar Vucic being the main promoter of the Serbian Progressive Party, and that, because of all such events, it could be concluded that the Dec. 17 elections would be irregular.

A member of the Supervisory Committee from the “Serbia Against Violence” coalition, Jovanka Matic of the Democratic Party, stated at a news conference in front of the parliament building that the majority of the Supervisory Committee had “obstructed the possibility for this parliamentary committee to provide for the regularity of the election process.”

Dragan Vucinic, a member of the Committee from the NADA coalition, stated that the 2023 elections were characterized by “the unusual behavior of the country’s president.” “It is hard to find a country in Europe, and indeed in the world, where the president behaves in such a way. The president has used his function and become the main promoter of his party, despite the regulations, the Constitution and the Law on the president,” Vucinic said.

He pointed out that, during the promotion of the Progressive Party’s electoral ticket, the Serbian president used rights “that do not belong to him,” and that he had “first started and spearheaded” the use of indecent language against opposing candidates. “He has attacked the dignity and integrity of a number of election participants,” Vucinic said, adding that this happened predominantly on the media with national broadcasting licenses, which, as he assessed, operated as “a private service of the president” in the campaign.