National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia / Activities / Activity details
18 December 2024 Seventh Meeting of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process
Thursday, 19 December 2024
Seventh Meeting of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process
The Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process held its seventh meeting in the National Assembly on 18 December 2024, starting at 4 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, Risto Kostov, Luka Pusic, Zagorka Aleksic, Rejhan Kurtovic, Pavle Dimitrijevic and Bojan Klacar, as well as substitute members Marina Mijatovic, Kristina Antic, Aleksandar Stevanovic and Vladana Jarakovic.
The meeting was also attended by Mihajlo Zivkovic, Advisor to the National Assembly Speaker, and Milan Culjkovic, Advisor to the National Assembly Secretary General, and at the invitation of the Chairman of the Working Group, ODIHR experts Lenka Homolkova and Raul Muresan also actively participated in the meeting via ZOOM.
The meeting proceeded according to the following agenda:
- Consideration of the Proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll submitted by Working Group member Ugljesa Mrdic and the Proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll submitted by Working Group member Pavle Dimitrijevic, in light of the ODIHR experts’ comments;
- Voting on the Proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll submitted by Working Group member Ugljesa Mrdic and on the Proposal of amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll submitted by Working Group member Pavle Dimitrijevic.
The ODIHR experts attended the meeting to answer the Working Group members’ questions and at the same time provide additional clarifications regarding the previously submitted ODIHR comments on the submitted proposals for amendments to the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll. The Chairman noted that the proposals on the agenda contain solutions that differ significantly from each other on certain issues. These differences can be grouped into four main thematic areas, which the members of the Working Group who had proposed amendments agreed with. Accordingly, he invited the ODIHR experts to present their views on which solutions from the bills meet or meet to a greater extent the recommendations of the ODIHR observation missions. These comments were followed up by the submitters of the proposals, Pavle Dimitrijevic and Ugljesa Mrdic, and then by the other members of the Working Group present.
In this regard, the following key differences between the two proposed amendments to the Law were discussed:
- the duration of the mandate of the future Commission for the Revision of the Unified Electoral Roll (whether the Commission should have a fixed-term mandate, and how long that mandate should last, or whether it should be established as a permanent body, which would periodically revise the electoral roll);
- on whose proposal the members of the Commission should be elected (should there be 10 members and 10 deputy members, proposed by parliamentary groups and representatives of civil society in the proportion: five proposed by parliamentary groups of the parliamentary majority, three proposed by parliamentary groups of the opposition, two proposed by citizens' associations, or should the Commission have 9 members and 9 deputy members, proposed by parliamentary groups and representatives of civil society in the proportion: three proposed by parliamentary groups of the parliamentary majority, three proposed by parliamentary groups of the opposition, three proposed by civic associations) and in this regard how the Commission should make decisions (by simple majority, two-thirds majority, various modalities of qualified majority), and how the chairmanship of the Commission should be regulated (permanent chairman or rotation of co-chairmen at certain intervals)
- the scope of the Commission (what powers the Commission should have). The ODIHR experts suggested expanding the scope of the Commission in relation to the solutions contained in the proposals;
- regulating the Commission's access to data, both from the Unified Electoral Roll and from other databases relevant for the revision and verification of the Unified Electoral Roll (e.g. residence records), and determining the scope of information from the electoral roll that would be accessible to everyone, in terms of protection of personal data.
After this discussion, Ugljesa Mrdic (SNS) said that he remained committed to the solutions in his proposal, with the possibility of further discussion, while Pavle Dimitrijevic (CRTA) informed the audience that he would revise his proposal as soon as possible in accordance with certain comments from the ODIHR, and submit the revised proposal to the Working Group for consideration. He did so on 19 December 2024.
The proposed amendments to the Law, as well as the ODIHR opinion, are available on the National Assembly website at: /national-assembly/composition/working-bodies/working-groups.494.html
After more than two hours of work, the meeting was adjourned and the continuation was scheduled for Tuesday, 24 December 2024, starting at 9 am.
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