No elections without new laws

The Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government has completed one of the four laws needed for local elections. Public Administration and Local Self-Government Minister Milan Markovic (DS) said that the ministry had completed a draft Law on territorial organization, and that next week it was due to be processed. No elections without new laws Markovic added that the laws on the capital, local elections and local self-government could not be completed until an electoral system had been decided on: first-past-the-post or proportional representation. "There’s a working group dealing with the matter, and talks are being conducted on both a political and professional level. Believe me, it’s quite a tricky issue. The Constitution has envisaged certain changes, the executive is selected from the representative bodies, and the selection of that representative body is currently being openly discussed," the minister said. "One of the arguments I must underline is that for this precise reason selection of that body has to be direct, which opens up another set of awkward questions, such as constituencies, as well as Constitutionally guaranteed proportionality of minority members, which is an added problem if we choose PR," he added. Not a single one of the laws that need to be passed before elections can take place has yet come under parliamentary scrutiny. B92 can confirm the Ministry of Defense has finished its work, and has forwarded its Law on Defense and the Military on to the government. For presidential elections to be held, a topic which has in recent weeks stirred the biggest debate, it is necessary to adopt the Law on the President of the Republic. Former JUL (Yugoslav Left Wing, the party formerly run by Mira Markovic, the wife of the late president, Slobodan Milosevic) activist, and now Democratic Party of Serbia MP Zoran Balinovac is the man charged with bringing this law before parliament. Milan Markovic (FoNet, archive)

No elections without new laws

Marković added that the laws on the capital, local elections and local self-government could not be completed until an electoral system had been decided on: first-past-the-post or proportional representation.

"There’s a working group dealing with the matter, and talks are being conducted on both a political and professional level. Believe me, it’s quite a tricky issue. The Constitution has envisaged certain changes, the executive is selected from the representative bodies, and the selection of that representative body is currently being openly discussed," the minister said.

"One of the arguments I must underline is that for this precise reason selection of that body has to be direct, which opens up another set of awkward questions, such as constituencies, as well as Constitutionally guaranteed proportionality of minority members, which is an added problem if we choose PR," he added.

Not a single one of the laws that need to be passed before elections can take place has yet come under parliamentary scrutiny. B92 can confirm the Ministry of Defense has finished its work, and has forwarded its Law on Defense and the Military on to the government.

For presidential elections to be held, a topic which has in recent weeks stirred the biggest debate, it is necessary to adopt the Law on the President of the Republic. Former JUL (Yugoslav Left Wing, the party formerly run by Mira Marković, the wife of the late president, Slobodan Milošević) activist, and now Democratic Party of Serbia MP Zoran Balinovac is the man charged with bringing this law before parliament.