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What is the way out of the four-month electoral crisis in Sabac, according to interlocutors from CeSID and Crta?
The Ministry of State Administration and Local Autonomy could intervene in the resolution of the electoral crisis in Sabac by introducing a temporary body, the Danas interlocutors of the organizations that deal with the elections, the Center for Research, Transparency and Surrender of Accounts – CRTA and the Center for Free Elections and Democracy – CeSID.
Photo: FoNet / Aleksandar BardaLet us remind you that the legal battle, but also any other battle around Sabac, is led by progressives and the current mayor and opposition leader Together for Serbia, Nebojsa Zelenovic.
After four months and three elections, the situation is such that it is currently not clear whether the Municipal Electoral Commission, which according to its former members does not have a quorum to decide, will declare the final results and the victory of the progressives or will have to decide on a Upper level. level.
Although the Sabac progressives announced last week that the GIK would announce the final results of the elections in a few days and would ask for the constitution of the local parliament if there are no objections to the court, that did not happen.
The very complicated situation was further complicated after 10 members of the City Election Commission, representing the ruling Together for Serbia party and its coalition partners, resigned on 7 October.
They claim that the remaining part of the GIK, representing progressives and their partners, does not have the necessary quorum (11 members out of 20) to decide.
In addition, according to the media, they use another GIK seal, obtained from the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, although the original and real seal is in the safe of the municipal administration.
Napredniks, for his part, announces that the GIK sessions are running smoothly with the quorum and that 11 of the 21 members are present, and that the final results will be announced and confirmed very soon.
The director of the Crta program, Rasa Nedeljkov, affirms for our newspaper that this organization did not monitor the electoral process in Sabac and does not have verifiable data.
– Based on the information that we managed to obtain, it seems that the only way out of the whole story is the nullity of the elections in their entirety, considering that there is no body that can announce the electoral results. Given that the mandates of the local parliament have expired and there is no administration in the local self-government, as well as all the deadlines for holding the elections have expired, the process for the introduction of a temporary administrative body should be initiated at the proposal of the Ministry of Administration of the State announced by the Government – affirms Nedeljkov.
He adds that the situation is legally highly debatable and is another indicator that the electoral process in Serbia is in danger.
– Even more so at the local level, where many processes take place with greater lack of transparency, out of the public eye and with more abuses than at the national level, where the situation is also very bad – says Nedeljkov.
CeSID also does not supervise the elections in Sabac. As Emilija Orestijevic of this organization explains for our work, the reason is mainly formal because it was not possible to re-accredit observers for repeat elections, so the coverage of polling stations where repeated voting would not be sufficient to systematically observe elections and give evaluations. .
– The electoral process, otherwise tense and complicated, loaded with a large number of irregularities and still unfinished processes for the protection of the right to vote, is further complicated by the fact that the GIK no longer has a quorum, so it does not you have the right to make decisions and end the electoral process. In such circumstances, it is practically impossible to predict the epilogue, considering that this is a unique legal situation that our legal framework does not foresee and does not recognize as such – says Orestijević.
According to her, in this sense, it is most likely that the highest state bodies, such as the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, will have to be involved in making the final decision, which could help to overcome the very specific situation in which the city is currently located. find.
– What is especially important is that these elections unequivocally show the need for better regulation of the legal regulations of local electoral administrations, that is, to redefine the form of organization and execution of local elections – he concludes.
We remind you that the citizens of Sabac have voted three times so far (June 21, September 5 and October 3).
First, on June 21, when elections were held across the country, but the City Election Commission annulled the elections in all 100 polling stations.
However, following the appeal of the SNS, the court decided to repeat the elections in 27 polling stations.
It was then decided that the elections would be repeated when the state of emergency imposed by the corona virus in the city was lifted.
The state of emergency was lifted on August 29, so Sabac residents went out and voted again on September 5.
And then the GIK decided that the elections would be repeated in five polling stations, so the vote took place on October 3.
Two days later, the GIK decides to repeat the elections in a polling station and then the situation worsens.
The progressives are gathering in front of the GIK headquarters, and part of the GIK members from the ranks of the progressives are going on a hunger strike. Two days later, on October 7, ten of its members resigned.
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