Djilas Not to Take Part in Election Talks Unless Public

Dragan Djilas/BRANISLAV BOZIC

Party of Freedom and Justice leader Dragan Djilas said on Aug. 4 that he would not take part in talks on election terms with the government unless they were public.

In a letter to the executive director of the Open Society Fund, Milan Antonijevic, who organized the first round of talks between the government and opposition on elections, Djilas accused the Fund's official of "having misinformed the public that the participants were constructive, claiming tendentiously that a boycott wasn't even mentioned and that a consensus was just around the corner."

Djilas also criticized Antonijevic for failing to inform the public about the initial meeting, "misleading a good part of the public into the false belief that it was a secret meeting, during which the opposition gave up its demands which were shaped over eight months of civil protests."

Djilas went on to say, however, that he "accepted the rule you suggested, that no one who spoke at the meeting would be quoted in public."

The opposition leader said that the next meeting ought to be public, "lest the public be presented with a false picture of what is happening behind closed doors," and "for every citizen to be able to see and hear for themselves the actions and views of everyone involved."