Koštunica looking for consensus

Koštunica looking for consensus

Koštunica and Serbian President Boris Tadić will not be meeting today.

Serbian Radical party official Tomislav Nikolić said that Koštunica proposed a compromise; for the parliamentary elections to be held at the end of January or February 4, at the latest. Nikolić said that the Prime Minister has given his party until noon tomorrow to accept or refuse the proposal.

Nikolić told Beta that and agreement has “almost” been made and that the Serbian Parliamentary meeting at which the new Constitution will be adopted will be held on November 8, and will begin at noon.

No agreements with Socialists

Secretary General of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Zoran Anđelković, said that  no agreement have been made regarding the elections of the adoption of the Constitutional Law after meetings held with Koštunica today. 

Anđelković said that the SPS delegation told the PM that the election laws cannot be changed in the same year as the election is to be held, and that the election campaign has to last at least 45 days.

“This means that elections can be held at any time after January 1, or, that they cannot be announced for the end of this year, because the election law will not be able to be changed.” Anđelković said.

“The SPS expects that the Serbian Parliament will adopt the new Constitution, and that in the continuation of the meetings, on the same day or the next day, a two-thirds majority will adopt the Constitutional Law.” Anđelković said.

“Two options”

The new Constitution is expected to be adopted on Wednesday, and Koštunica is eager to reach a solution for the date of the elections so that it can be announced on the same day.

Blic writes that it is still very uncertain whether an agreement for the Constitutional Law will be reached, which is expected to be adopted on the same day as the new Constitution.

According to the daily’s source, one of the options is to adopted the Constitutional Law on Wednesday, which would then shorten the term for holding elections after they are announced, from 45 to 30 days. However, it is uncertain whether a two-thirds majority will be able to be secured for this purpose.

Another option is to disregarding the new Constitutional Law and announced the elections according to the old Constitution, which will depend exclusively on an agreement between Koštunica and Serbian President Boris Tadić.

If Tadić and Koštunica reach an agreement on a date for the elections either in December of January without changes being made to the Constitutional Law, one of the first obligations of the next parliament will be to adopt the law, according to Blic’s source.

First statute, then elections

President of the Vojvodina Executive Council, Bojan Pajtić said that the Vojvodina Parliament needs to adopt a statute before elections on either the local or national level, regardless of whether the elections will take place this year or next.

Pajtić told daily Dnevnik that the Executive Council is preparing a new statute, adding that the job will probably be completed within the next two or three weeks.

He said that the Vojvodina Parliament is liberal and reform-oriented enough to state that there are no minorities in Vojvodina anymore, and that all communities have equal guarantees for representation in the parliament and in local governments.

“There is also a whole other set of regulations that contain the essence of positive European practices which the current parliament has to make a decision regard.” Pajtić said.