Parliament to discuss constitution tonight

Parliament to discuss constitution tonight

B92 has learned that the referendum proposal states that it should be held over the course of two days on October 28-29.  B92’s source close to the government said that this is not an out-of-the ordinary proposal.

Before the parliamentary meeting, the Council for Constitutional Questions will discuss the proposal. Last night the parliamentary sub-council for the constitutional question met, and according to reports, the draft of the constitutional proposal was agreed upon.

According to Democratic Party officials, one more adjustment regarding the status of Vojvodina, which they proposed, will be made. President of the Vojvodina Executive Council Bojan Pajtić told B92 that the democrats were able to get financial autonomy for Vojvodina in the new constitution.

Pajtić said that thanks to this autonomy, starting next year there will be ten times the investments, and that Vojvodina will have its own property and income. 

“We asked for direct income, jurisdiction and legislation, and executive and partial judicial government. We received practically all of it, except that the regional laws will not be called laws, but decision, but they will be of a legal character. We have an executive government and the guarantees that Vojvodina will be delegated a judge from the Constitutional Court and a part of the members of the Supreme Court Council, so we will be participating in all of the highest legal bodies.” Pajtić said.

The last consultations were held last night between the prime minister and officials of the Sandžak list, and it was agreed that the new constitution will enable a faster urban integration of Serbia into the European Union and that it will offer the highest standards for the protection of human and minority rights.

However, Party President Rasim Ljajić confirmed that the Sandžak Democratic Party did not participate in the discussions.

“The fact that the minority communities were not consulted is not the only problem, the problem is that there was no public discussions, the fact that the ministers in the government and the officials of the parliament do not know what the proposal for the new constitution looks like. Today public discussions have begun for the name of the mascot for the 2008 World Cup in Austria and Switzerland and we are not even having two days of public discussion for the highest legal act of the land.” Rasim Ljajić told B92.

Political analyst Zoran Lutovac told B92 that the constitutional question is being rushed because of the G17 Plus party’s threats to leave the Government.

“The question is would we be talking about the constitution today if we were in discussions with the EU?” Lutovac said.

Lutovac also does not expect a great turn out for the referendum, because of the lack of public discussion and said that the Government obviously does not have a back-up plan if the referendum does not succeed.