AN UNPRECEDENTED ELECTION - Assessment of the electoral process in Serbia since 4 March 2020
AN UNPRECEDENTED ELECTION - Assessment of the electoral process in Serbia since 4 March 2020

Author(s): Not Specified Author
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Civil Society, Government/Political systems, Electoral systems
Published by: CeSID
Keywords: Serbia; Elections; Election Boycott; Democracy; Parliamentary; One of Five Million
Summary/Abstract: The underlying emotional narrative, lack of communication between key political stakeholders, a lengthy series of demonstrations (held under the motto One of Five Million until the eponymous organisation left the protest movement), unhappiness with the state of the country’s democracy and electoral conditions, and in particular dissatisfaction with Parliament due to repeated breaches of parliamentary rules and laws, led a large section of the opposition to first walk out of Parliament and then to call for a boycott of the election. This long-standing political strategy of refusing to attend Parliament gradually worked its way into other areas of politics as well: opposition parties countered the calling of the election by formally launching a boycott campaign with the adoption of the Declaration to Boycott the General Election on 1 February 2020. Yet the seeming unity of the opposition parties and movements had begun to unravel by degrees even before the election was called. In late January, the One of Five Million association, which had spearheaded the demonstrations, announced they would contest the election as others had ‘betrayed the idea of the boycott’. The opposition bloc was also divided around taking part in local elections, with Saša Paunović, Nebojša Zelenović, and Milan Stamatović, the mayors of Paraćin, Šabac, and Čajetina, respectively, resolved to contest local elections in their communities in the teeth of disapproval from much of the opposition.

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