The meeting was chaired by Nemanja Nenadic, Chairman of the Working Group, and attended by Working Group members Ugljesa Mrdic, Ana Jakovljevic, Jelena Jerinic, Filip Tatalovic, Ana Krstic, Risto Kostov, Luka Pusic, Zagorka Aleksic, Pavle Dimitrijevic and Bojan Klacar, as well as substitute members Marina Mijatovic, Kristina Antic and Aleksandar Stevanovic.

The meeting was also attended by Vladimir Dimitrijevic, National Assembly Deputy Secretary General, as well as associates to the Speaker and National Assembly Secretary General.

Working Group member Pavle Dimitrijevic (CRTA) initially informed the attendees to the changes he had made to his initial proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll, noting that this had taken into account certain comments made by ODIHR experts. He noted that the new solutions had improved the rules on the security of personal data and significantly expanded the scope of the future Commission for the Revision of the Unified Electoral Roll. It was also envisaged that the Commission would make decisions by a qualified two-third majority.

During the discussion that followed, the focus of the Working Group members was primarily on the new solution that envisages the expansion of the Commission's scope of work, as well as on the scope of data from public registers and records that should be available to the Commission in order to carry out its task.

In addition, the Working Group members also discussed the adequacy of the terminological solutions relating to determining the composition of the Commission, during which various proposals were heard on how to define the parliamentary majority and opposition parliamentary groups in the National Assembly, which, in accordance with the proposal, have the right to propose members of the Commission.

Working Group member MP Ugljesa Mrdic (SNS), who had, three days earlier, in his request to postpone the continuation of the meeting, announced that he would submit amendments to his original proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll, informed the attendees that he was still working on them and that he wanted to take into account some of the comments of the ODIHR experts in the amended proposal, as well as to bring certain solutions as close as possible to the solutions in Pavle Dimitrijevic's proposal. He added that the amendments concern the composition, duration of the mandate and competences of the Commission, as well as the protection of personal data.

After a discussion that was full of polemical tones, an agreement was reached to adjourn the meeting, for Ugljesa Mrdic to submit his revised proposal by the end of the working day, and for the Working Group to then vote on both Pavle Dimitrijevic's proposal and Ugljesa Mrdic's proposal.

With that in mind, after more than two hours of work, the meeting was adjourned and the continuation was scheduled for Friday, 27 December 2024, starting at 2 pm.

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The Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process continued its seventh meeting, in the National Assembly, on 27 December 2024, starting at 2 pm.

The meeting was chaired by Nemanja Nenadic, Chairman of the Working Group, and attended by Working Group members Ugljesa Mrdic, Ana Jakovljevic, Jelena Jerinic, Filip Tatalovic, Ana Krstic, Risto Kostov, Luka Pusic, Uros Kandic, Zagorka Aleksic, Djordje Komlenski, Pavle Dimitrijevic and Bojan Klacar, as well as substitute members Marko Milosevic, Marina Mijatovic, Kristina Antic, Aleksandar Stevanovic and Edin Numanovic.

The meeting was attended by Vladimir Dimitrijevic, National Assembly Deputy Secretary General, as well as associates to the Speaker and National Assembly Secretary General.

Working Group member Ugljesa Mrdic explained the solutions in his amended proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll, answering questions from the Working Group chairperson and members. It was noted that the solutions are similar to those in Pavle Dimitrijevic's proposal in the part concerning the competence of the Commission for the Revision of the Unified Electoral Roll, as well as in terms of the publicity of data, i.e. the protection of personal data. On the other hand, the most significant differences that remain between the two proposals relate to the authorised proposers and the number of members of the Commission, as well as the duration of its mandate.

Concerning the mandate of the future Commission for the Revision of the Unified Electoral Roll, the Working Group considered the possible consequences of the proposed solutions, especially in the event of an early presidential or republican election. Similar to the day before, the discussion also focused on the issue of criteria for determining the status of ruling and opposition parliamentary groups, as well as the availability and protection of personal data.

After a short break, the vote began.

Before proceeding to the actual voting, the Chairman reminded those present of some of the provisions of item 6 of the Decision on the Establishment of the Working Group, which, among other things, stipulate that: The Working Group shall decide by a two-third majority of the total number of members; that in the event that a member of the Working Group cannot or does not wish to support any proposal relating to the full or partial implementation of a specific ODIHR recommendation, or does not attend the meeting at which the proposals are decided, he or she shall not be counted in the total number of members of the Working Group when deciding on that proposal; that if no proposal relating to the same legal provision or several interrelated provisions, or to the same measure, receives the required majority of votes for adoption, the proposals shall be harmonised within the Working Group; that if, even after harmonisation, a decision is not made on a proposal for the full or partial implementation of the recommendation, an act with the two proposals that received the highest number of votes, but which did not receive the required majority of votes for adoption, shall be submitted to the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues.

It was agreed that a roll call vote would be held, whereby each of the present members, or the substitutes of absent members of the Working Group, would state whether they support one of the two proposals.

Seven members/substitute members of the Working Group with the right to vote voted in favour of Pavle Dimitrijevic's proposal (Ana Jakovljevic, Jelena Jerinic, Filip Tatalovic, Aleksandar Stevanovic, Bojan Klacar, Nemanja Nenadic and Pavle Dimitrijevic), eight members/substitute members of the Working Group with the right to vote voted in favour of Ugljesa Mrdic's proposal (Marko Milosevic, Risto Kostov, Luka Pusic, Uros Kandic, Zagorka Aleksic, Djordje Komlenski, Edin Numanovic and Ugljesa Mrdic), while Working Group member Ana Krstic abstained.

Since, according to the provisions of the Decision on the Establishment of the Working Group, in this specific case, it was necessary for one of the proposals to receive at least 10 votes, the Chairman of the Working Group noted that none of the proposals had been adopted. The Chairman then reminded the members of the provision of the Decision which stipulates that in such situations an attempt will be made to harmonise the proposals within the Working Group, but that the method of harmonisation itself is not specified. He pointed out that it is first and foremost necessary for the proposers to state whether they wish to proceed with harmonisation. It was also clarified that in the event that harmonisation is achieved, a vote would also have to be held on the joint proposal that the proposers eventually agree on. Four members, or substitute members of the Working Group, stated that they did not want to participate in the harmonisation process at the meeting itself, because, as they pointed out, there was enough time for that, after which they left the meeting (Jakovljevic, Stevanovic, Tatalovic, Jerinic).

After another break, the proposers Dimitrijevic and Mrdic stated that they would proceed with the harmonisation of the proposals and were given the deadline of 30 December 2024, to harmonise their proposals, or to inform the Working Group within the same deadline that they had failed to do so.

As this exhausted the agenda, the Chairman concluded the Seventh Meeting of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process after nearly three hours of work.