Today, during the stoppage time, on the last day of the legal deadline, the Assembly of the AP Vojvodina was dissolved, and it was made official that early Vojvodina elections will be held when both the republican and part of the local elections are held - on December 17.
The elections were called by Momo Čolaković, a high-ranking official of the party of the Krkobabić family, the so-called United Pensioners Party of Serbia, who is the temporary and short-term head of the parliament, an interim solution after the death of Istvan Pastor. Pastor's departure created a procedural confusion because the internal provincial acts were not clear whether one of the vice-presidents could dissolve the assembly and declare elections, so a new leader was quickly elected.
The announcement of the election was also delayed due to turbulence within the Serbian Progressive Party, more than due to procedural snags: namely, the current Prime Minister Igor Mirović was not satisfied with early voting and the shortening of the mandate, because he belongs to a minority group within the party and has been in conflict with the fictitious president of the SNS for a long time. and Miloš Vučević, whose party would gladly take over the provincial government. We will see how the intra-party negotiations are completed and how the possible post-election spoils are distributed.
Meaningless autonomy
These elections are characterized by the fact that Vojvodina's autonomy is thoroughly and systematically meaningless in a progressive way, and that the work of its dusty institutions no longer interests anyone. Obviously, the goal of the people of Vučić was and remains that the citizens of Vojvodina and the entire country actually start asking what the purpose of this autonomy is in general, except for recruiting party cadres and spending money. It's called - suffocation of autonomy.
It can be expected that the media will not be overly interested in these elections, and that citizens will be confused when they receive a provincial ballot. The campaign itself will last a maximum of three weeks for the opposition, when you take into account the fact that it is necessary to spend a lot of days to collect signatures.
Protest of farmers and postmen
The farmers' protest, which is getting stronger and more than justified, will also be, it is expected, an important segment of the campaign at the republican, and especially at the provincial level.
The event in Bavanište had a strong echo among the public: we will see if the Paori will manage to force both the opposition and the government parties to speak about their problems and offer specific solutions before the elections.
In addition, there is also a large postmen's strike, which started precisely from Novi Sad. It is not excluded that there will be more protests and turbulence in Vojvodina by December 17, given that there is definitely a huge dissatisfaction of various segments of society with the current government.
Serbia against violence
The pro-European opposition will appear in Vojvodina on a single list, following the example of the republican elections. It will be called identically - Serbia against violence, and its bearers will be Mihajlo Brkić from the SRCE party and Marinika SSP Tepić. Mihajlo Brkić is a former high-ranking official of the Democratic Party and former ambassador of Serbia in Kuwait (he also covered some other Arab countries).
The first on the list is Stanko Pužić from Pancevo, a representative of the National Movement of Serbia, who is also not too well known to the general public, a young man who is a manager by profession, very successful, they say. The negotiations were difficult, some parties had to swallow a few frogs, but they put the general interest before the party interest.
It was said that the list will be expanded to include individuals from Action Progressive Vojvodina (APV) and the civil movement BRAVO. As we learn, the "locksmiths" did not want to be candidates, but they will cooperate with the opposition in the control of elections, that is, in the training of controllers. Action Progressive Vojvodina will have a candidate on the SSP quota, and the organization in question is mostly made up of former members of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, who left this party dissatisfied with its long-term coalition with the Serbian Progressive Party.
League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina
As the elections are approaching, the LSV is trying more and more intensively to throw off the heavy burden of cooperation with the progressives and the too long coalition in Novi Sad, that is, participation in the studious urban and cultural destruction of the capital of Vojvodina.
This party is becoming "fiercely oppositional", and for the purpose of changing its image, its leader was replaced earlier. The extremely unpopular Nenad Canak was replaced by his right-hand man, Bojan Kostres. According to the information we have, this is a pure simulacrum: the unchallenged Chanak still holds all the diggins in his hands.
The party will go to the Vojvodina elections with a story about autonomy, and it may even pass the census, especially if the citizens judge that the pro-European bloc does not have excessive interest in the Vojvodina cause.
Right-wing opposition
As for the right-wing opposition, it will be interesting to see what happens there. The NADA coalition will definitely appear in the format of the republican list, and they may be joined by a few national and provincial workers. The parties that make up this coalition in the previous provincial elections, which were boycotted by the opposition, separately won almost nine percent of the votes.
Will there be a joint list of Dveri and Zavetnik? We do not have an answer to this question, but it would be illogical if these parties, which would prefer the autonomy of Vojvodina to be trampled with a tank, appear in the provincial elections.
According to our information, the People's Party will not participate in the Vojvodina vote, and the problem is of an infrastructural nature - gathering signatures. Namely, a large number of members of this party from Vojvodina joined Miroslav Aleksić's People's Movement of Serbia, which affected its capacity.
Union of Vojvodina Hungarians
Traditionally, the Union of Vojvodina Hungarians will go to the provincial elections alone. How Istvan Pastor's death will affect voters and who will be his successor (son or someone else) is not yet known.
In the Vojvodina elections of 2020, compared to those of 2016, this party almost doubled the percentage of votes, which is a consequence of the fact that in the meantime it lost the opposition within the national community, and because it managed to settle various issues with money/donations from Hungary .
Of course, there are also lists of SNS and SPS. About them another time.
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