CESID: Quick Local Elections in Belgrade Favor Ruling Coalition

Elections in Serbia (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)

A quick local election in Belgrade would be better for the ruling coalition, owing to its disciplined electorate, while prolonging it would benefit the opposition "which needs time to adapt and enter the process," Ivo Colovic, a representative of the non-governmental Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), said on March 8.

Speaking about recommendations by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights designed to improve electoral conditions in Serbia, Colovic said recommendations with regard to the Serbian media community "can be implemented for the next election already," but that sorting out the voter register, which was the main issue, was much more complex.

"I am not sure that irregularities can be eliminated even if the elections are held on June 2," Colovic cautioned, adding that political groups were not expected to significantly change their campaigns for the coming election, because they would wanted to "keep the voters" who had extended them their trust in December.

"We need to see which parties and groups will run," Colovic said. He emphasized that the Serbian Progressive Party had a "fairly stable" voter base of around 360,000 votes in the capital, but that the number of their voters was not increasing, while "other parties are likelier to see a higher turnout.”