ODIHR says Serbian election law amendments are not reform

It said that it’s recommendations to amend the laws before the next elections still stand. “Still, the proposed amendments are an overall welcomed step towards addressing certain ODIHR recommendations in the legislation,” it added in the urgent opinion on the amendments.

The organization said that some of those amendments should be reviewed prior to adoption.

“ODIHR makes the following recommendations to further enhance or supplement the proposed amendments:

A. to ensure consistency across electoral legislation, further consideration should be given to harmonizing provisions in the law on the Election of Members of Parliament and the Law on Local Elections;

B. to provide legal certainty, the amendments related to training of local election commission and polling board members should clearly specify the applicability to upcoming elections;

C. to prevent the misuse of special provisions for national minority lists, further consider defining clear, objective, and fair criteria for eligibility to submit a national minority list and for granting of national minority status to lists;

D. to provide greater transparency regarding the misuse of public resources in the campaign, require the prompt publishing by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of warnings issued to public officials for related violations;

E. to ensure effective remedy, further consider the time needed for the resolution of appeals of election results by the Constitutional Court;

F. to look comprehensively at the needed election reforms, ODIHR recalls the recommendations of its reports and the 2022 Joint Opinion with the Venice Commission.” the ODIHR Urgent Opinion on Draft Amendments to Several Pieces of Election-related Legislation of Serbia said.