Opposition Official: Early Elections Solution to Crisis, but Only If There Is No Manipulation

(BETAPHOTO/Narodna skupstina Srbije/Pedja Vuckovic)

Ratko Ristic, a councillor in the Belgrade City Assembly from the We - the Strength of the People movement, said on Nov. 26 that the extraordinary elections that the student protests have been calling for since early May were the solution to the accumulated tension and the social and political crisis in the country, but only if preparations were made for them so that there are "no machinations, and there have been plenty of them."

Ristic told the Simptom website that, for the elections to be termed elections, the electoral rolls would have to be revised, air time on media outlets with national coverage equally distributed, and vote buying, bribing and blackmailing people into voting by the ruling party prevented, the We - the Strength of the People movement said in a press release on Nov. 26.

"General consensus is needed in preparing for the elections. However, I have to point out that I am surprised that the proposals of the representatives of We - the Strength of the People about installing cameras at all polling places were rejected by the so-called pro-European opposition too," Ristic added. According to him, cameras would show "who is even getting to the polling station."

He said that the incumbent regime headed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had brought the country into an almost hopeless position "with flagrant destruction of the remains of institutional order on the internal plane," adding that "this tragic situation Serbian society finds itself in could have a tragic denouement."