Serbian opposition leaders say no elections without fair conditions

NEWS 02.08.201914:50
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Two Serbian opposition leaders said on Friday that they would boycott any future elections unless the conditions for free and fair elections were in place.

Freedom and Justice Party leader Dragan Djilas said in a written statement to the Beta news agency that the decision to boycott elections cannot be changed.  

“The decision to boycott elections unless opposition demands are accepted and the recommendations of the 1 in 5 Million protest’s team of experts are implemented was taken in agreement with the citizens and cannot be changed. We will not betray the trust that they gave us by signing the Agreement With the People and no matter the consequences we remain committed to the idea that there will be no elections in a country which has no freedom and democracy,” Djilas wrote.  

He said that he expects support from everyone who believes in basic democratic and European values. “This is primarily our fight and we have to win like we did so many times in our history,” he said.  

Dveri party leader Bosko Obradovic added in a separate statement that he would prevent any future elections if they are “undemocratic, unfair and dishonest”.   “If the authorities do not want to accept the recommendations of the 1 in 5 Million expert team, if it ignores the demands from the protests I can confirm that we will prevent those elections. Election fraud is a serious crime,” Obradovic wrote.  

“Vucic fears an election boycott which would finally reveal the failure of Serbian democracy 30 years after a multi-party system was imposed and the return to one-party dictatorship,” he said.