
The civil initiatives’ campaign for free elections, FERKA, launched an initiative to determine whether the Serbian president is violating the Constitution.
The FERKA legal team has drafted a text that needs to be supported by the signatures of one-third of Serbian MPs so that it can it be submitted as a motion to the Constitutional Court, which is the only competent authority to decide whether the president is violating the Constitution.
Presenting the initiative, Maja Stojanovic of FERKA said they focused on the fifth of the seven key OSCE/ODIHR recommendations to improve the electoral process, which refers to public officials’ campaigning.
She recalled that the election campaign for the December 17, 2023 vote was dominated by the decisive involvement of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, that his name was on all the electoral tickets of the coalition assembled around the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), and that, in the end, people did not really understand who they were voting for.
FERKA legal team member Vladica Ilic said the Constitution stipulates that, when the procedure to decide on the violation of the Constitution by the president is initiated, the Constitutional Court has 45 days to rule on it.
He added that members of the FERKA legal team believe that the president’s participation in election campaigns and his name on election tickets constitute a violation of the Constitution.
Serbian opposition MPs signed Thursday at the Serbian Parliament the proposal drafted by the FERKA legal team.
The proposal was presented at a media conference and signed by MPs of the opposition Movement of Free Citizens (PSG), Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), Green-Left Front (ZLF), People’s Movement of Serbia, Serbia Center (SRCE) and Democratic Party.