Speaker: Everyone Mostly Happy with Document for Improving Election Conditions

Ivica Dacic (BETAPHOTO/FOREIGN MINISTRY/Ognjen Stevanovic/MO)

The speaker of the Serbian parliament, Ivica Dacic, said on Oct. 24 that "everyone is mostly happy" with a document outlining the improvement of election conditions resulting from unmediated negotiations between the regime and the opposition and that he expected "the representatives of the seven strongest parties or coalitions" who participated in the talks to sign it.

Dacic told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation that the document "defines the rules" and that the next step was for it to be signed formally this week by the representatives of the opposition parties and coalitions who took part in the talks.

He said the authorities had pledged "to implement everything" from a parallel dialogue mediated by European Parliament members, too, even though, according to him, the formations of Freedom and Justice Party leader Dragan Djilas and People's Party president Vuk Jeremic "do not want to take part in this," and that it would serve as a basis for establishing a media monitoring body to keep track of the opposition's air time during the election campaign.

He added that the agreement covered electoral law, the election process, things like submitting tickets and collecting signatures, voting roster checks and monitoring voting day and results, and the matters of the media and campaign funding. Local, parliamentary and presidential elections were agreed to be held simultaneously.