Candidates controlled by the regime won the elections for the VST

In the repeated elections, the government ensured that in the composition High Prosecutorial Council there is a prosecutor who is close to their current, since at the level of higher public prosecutions, the majority was won by the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office (VJT) in Belgrade, Nikola Uskoković, a close associate Nenad Stefanović.

Uskoković was a candidate who was supported by the VJT collegium in Belgrade, and who is considered to be under the complete control of the regime.

He defeated his opponent Boris Majlat, the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Šabac and, until recently, the chief prosecutor for high-tech crime. Majlat is considered a prosecutor who is close to the stream of the supreme public prosecutor Zagorke Dolovac.

As announced by Yucom, which monitored the elections at four polling stations at the level of higher public prosecutor's offices, Nikola Uskoković won 48,89 percent of the votes, i.e. 110 out of 225, while Boris Majlat got 47,11 percent, i.e. 106 votes.

There were 10 invalid ballots, or four percent. The turnout was 97,83 percent, that is, only five of them did not come out.

The currents around Dolovac and Stefanović have been in open conflict for months. Due to the fact that in the first elections in December, Majlat won by a narrow majority, with a difference of only four votes, the public questioned whether the reason for repeating the elections is precisely the possibility that the government can secure its own member in the High Council of Prosecutors.

Photo: Freepik

Results at the level of basic public prosecutor's offices

At the level of the basic public prosecution offices, Predrag Milovanović, the prosecutor of the Second Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, and Boris Pavlović, the prosecutor of the Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, secured positions in the High Council of Prosecutors.

The two are also members of the current convocation of the Prosecutor's Council.

Their opponents in the elections were Jovana Komnenović and Nikola Stojanović, prosecutors of the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade.

Elections were repeated at four polling stations - two in Kragujevac, one in Niš and one in Novi Sad, because voters filed complaints about violations of electoral rights in those places in December last year.

Although the High Prosecution Council rejected all objections, the Constitutional Court accepted them, and therefore repeated elections were held today. In the elections held at the end of last year, only two members of the Council were elected out of a total of five, from the ranks of the appellate and supreme public prosecutor's offices.

At the appellate level, there were two candidates in the race. The most votes in the elections were won by Radmila Jovanović, prosecutor of the Appellate Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, 45, while her only opponent, Zoran Vucelja, won 20.

Only prosecutor Jasmina Stanković was a candidate from the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office. Twelve of her colleagues had no one else to vote for, so her place in the High Council was the only one safe from the beginning.

Never more important elections

The elections for the High Prosecutor's Council have never been more significant or well-attended. The campaign that lasted for months in the pro-regime media and on social networks also contributed to this. That is why the large turnout of public prosecutors in these elections was not too surprising.

Prosecutors elect members of the Council exclusively at the level at which they perform their function.

There is a right to complain in case of violation of electoral rights at the polling station, which is submitted to the Council within 24 hours. The Council makes a decision in the form of a Decision, against which there is a right of appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The Council has a total of 11 members. Apart from these five who are elected from the ranks of public prosecutors, four members are elected by the assembly from the ranks of distinguished lawyers and two are permanent members by position - the Supreme Prosecutor and the Minister of Justice.