Opposition blocks Nis City Assembly session

The Nis City Assembly was elected two months ago with the opposition holding the same number of seats as the ruling coalition around the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) but the single assembly member from the Russian Party crossed over to the authorities giving them the majority. The elections were followed by two months of legal struggle over the regularity of the vote.

On Monday, opposition Assembly members took over the speaker’s pulpit and refused to allow the meeting to go ahead, claiming that the SNS does not have the majority. The session was opened by the oldest Assembly member who said the meeting was attended by 60 of the total of 61 members which met with protests from the opposition.

An N1 reporter said that the opposition demanded a roll call to determine if there were enough members in the hall since the missing SNS member means they do not have the votes to adopt the agenda.

They also claimed that the Russian Party’s Assembly member Tihomir Peric’s seat was not verified by the Election Verification Commission.

The meeting broke up just before 2 pm for what the chair said was a break.

According to the N1 reporter the ruling party and opposition have 30 seats each with the Russian Party (which has no Russian members) holding the deciding vote.