IZMENE ZAKONA U VEZI SA IZBORNIM PROCESOM KAO POSLEDICA DIJALOGA IZMEĐU RELEVANTNIH POLITIČKIH AKTERA I ORGANIZACIJA CIVILNOG DRUŠTVA U PERIODU OD 2019. DO 2022. GODINE U REPUBLICI SRBIJI
AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW REGARDING THE ELECTORAL PROCESS AS A RESULT OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN RELEVANT POLITICAL ACTORS AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION FROM 2019 TO 2022 IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Summary/Abstract: Ahead of the regular parliamentary elections in 2020 in the Republic of Serbia, a portion of the opposition political parties and organizations gathered in the coalition ‘Alliance for Serbia’ announced a boycott of the electoral process due to insufficient conditions for free elections. As a result of this announcement, a series of negotiations were initiated at the Faculty of Political Sciences between representatives of all relevant political entities to improve electoral conditions. Although some amendments to the legal procedures related to the electoral process were made, it was not enough for the ‘Alliance for Serbia’ coalition to participate in the 2020 parliamentary elections. There were no significant changes during this negotiation process, except for the reduction of the electoral threshold from 5% to 3%, although none of the political actors proposed this during the negotiations. Similar discussions took place in 2021, involving two parallel dialogues: one with Members of the European Parliament and another within the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, moderated by Ivica Dačić as the then-President of the National Assembly. One of the significant outcomes of these negotiations was the establishment of a Temporary Supervisory Body for Monitoring Media during the election campaign, although this body lacked clear authority. Therefore, these discussions can be considered somewhat more successful, as they led to the participation of all relevant political actors in the 2022 electoral process. This paper will examine what procedural changes were caused by these negotiations, which elements could be further improved, and the role of civil society organizations dealing with electoral conditions in Serbia in the entire process.

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