Serbia Against Violence Coalition Calls for Special Law in Line with ODIHR Recommendations

Serbia Against Violence (BetaPhoto/Milan Obradovic)

The opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence demanded on March 11 that prior to Serbia’s next polls a special law be enacted to recognize all of their requests, including to set up a commission that would oversee the elections, revise the voter register and implement all recommendations by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said Radomir Lazovic, the Green Left Front’s MP.

Lazovic said to reporters that the opposition had prepared a document with fundamental strategies relying also on recommendations by the Proglas (ProVote) initiative and the CRTA NGO.

"The Parliament of Serbia must set up a special body, an independent commission for the control of elections, which would be granted supervisory and executive powers, and represent the authorities, the opposition and civil society," said Lazović, whose Green Left Front is part of the Serbia Against Violence coalition.

The opposition politician said the solutions would be modeled after North Macedonia’s, where a provisional government is formed before elections, and in that case the opposition would be heading the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Lazovic also suggested that an independent team of experts should control the voter register, and regarding the media, the Parliament should adopt a binding recommendation on a pre-election program, and that the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), the managing board and the director general of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) should be dismissed as well.