Belgrade Mayor Announces Two Possible New Elections

Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

If the Belgrade City Assembly is not formed on March 1, the election for this body will have to be repeated, likely around May 20, incumbent Mayor Aleksandar Sapic said on Feb. 22 and added that the regular vote for the administration of the capital’s inner municipalities cannot take place before June.

“That’s what the law says. We’re talking about two new elections. We need to understand how much money, time and hold-ups this will entail. Then we’ll see. We may end up in the same situation we’re in now, unable to form a majority,” Sapic told Happy TV.

The mayor reiterated that his party, the Serbian Progressive Party, will only partner with the We – The Voice of the People movement if its co-founder Branimir Nestorovic accepts such a deal because he, in their opinion, is the only one with the legitimacy to negotiate.

Meanwhile, the Voice of the People has broken into three separate factions, which on the local Belgrade level means three pairs of aldermen with conflicting views, one of which includes Nestorovic himself.

So far, none of the factions have stated whether or not they are willing to align with the Progressives and Socialist Party of Serbia, who need two more assemblymen to form a majority government in the capital.