The head of the observation mission of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Federica Onori, said that not all recommendations were followed and cited the problem of the threatened safety of journalists and the use of public resources.
ANEM states that journalists at the meeting of the Serbian Progressive Party in Novi Sad were subjected to physical attacks, harassment and checks by plainclothes policemen.
In Brussels, they are waiting to see how the elections will go and are gathering information, and the reports of independent domestic and international observers during the election day will also play an important role, says Igor Bandović, director of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy.
The elections on October 25 will be observed by several international missions, and the first evaluations will be announced the day after the elections
The National Convention on the EU warned that Serbia has so far not invited European Parliament observers to the elections on October 25, although the ODIHR and the Council of Europe have received invitations. He considers that this is an exception to the current practice and requests that the invitation be sent as soon as possible
As the security forces say that the greatest strength of the secret services lies in the reputation of their omnipotence, the entire Vučić-progressive engagement since the fall of the canopy is based on an attempt to maintain, that is, to regain the perception of omnipotence. This is what naked political violence, huge tents and the television program "Vučić 24/7" serve. And there is every chance that Vučić is also ripe to fall and that, no matter how hard he tries and whatever he does, hardly anyone except the "underdogs" - and not all of them - believes that he is omnipotent
Due to the "significantly polarized political and social environment", ODIHR recommended the engagement of a full-capacity observer mission in Serbia - teams of experts, 32 long-term and 300 short-term observers
Limits for campaign expenses are set too high, "third-party campaigning" is not regulated enough, and key problems of control and sanctions remain unresolved, ODIHR believes.
After the meeting with the Director of ODIHR, Marija Telalian, the National Assembly published a statement full of praise for the Speaker of the Parliament, Ana Brnabić. ODIHR's official address a day later is much more down-to-earth
"The elections are now also an opportunity for President Aleksandar Vučić and his party to show in which direction they want to develop the country," Šider said.
The frequency of violations of the secrecy of voting, several examples of serious irregularities including cases of vote buying and pressure on voters, group voting and voting through intermediaries, distrust in the accuracy of the Unified Voters' List, are some of the shortcomings observed by the ODIHR in the elections yesterday
The valuable elections held on December 17 caused political passions not only in Serbia, but also in the European Union due to a large number of irregularities. Domestic and foreign observers learned many lessons from them. It seems that the election frauds would not be repeated on June 2
Apart from the amendments to the Law on the Unified Voters' List, "no other changes applicable to these elections were adopted", says the ODIHR report for the period from April 30 to May 14
The preliminary report states that these elections are an extension of the electoral process from December 2023 and were entered into without implementing the priority recommendation of the ODIHR on the necessity of an independent revision of the voter list.
The director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR Matteo Maccachi, said that they plan to open an observation mission for the Belgrade elections from April 29, which would include experts and long-term observers, as well as short-term observers who would come a few days before election day.
"In such circumstances, Proglas has no moral, ethical and socially responsible right to invite citizens to turn out for such elections," Bjelogrlić said.
On Monday, the Serbian Parliament should discuss the implementation of ODIHR's recommendations for the remaining local and repeated Belgrade elections. Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta refuses any talks without a live broadcast, while his coalition partners from Serbia against violence in the Parliament will represent common positions with the Nada coalition
The Prime Minister informed the participants of the meeting of the Working Group for the Improvement of Electoral Conditions with everything that has been done so far in order to fulfill the recommendations of the ODIHR
Prime Minister Ana Brnabić informed "international partners that the Government of Serbia has already sent an invitation letter to the observation mission that would monitor the local elections in Belgrade."
The observation mission of the ODIHR seems to have pleased both the government and the opposition with its final report, Deutsche Welle assesses. Analysts expect the government to make only cosmetic changes until the next elections, but to continue stealing votes
"Kurir" correctly noted that the ODIHR report is "boring" and "written in bureaucratic" vocabulary, and a number of other regime media claimed in unsigned texts that the report says that the elections were completely regular, which it does not say
"The final report on the December elections of the ODIHR, which is expected to be published tomorrow, will most likely not differ much from the preliminary one, and its essence is the finding of electoral theft by the regime of Aleksandar Vučić", said Radomir Lazović.
Both the German Minister of Defense and President Vučić assessed that their conversation today was sincere, and Vučić promised that Serbia will not surprise anyone with its military or any moves, and that for Serbia the implementation of ODIHR recommendations is a matter of course.
The fact that no one from the West is congratulating Vučić is an unprecedented and strong message, Professor Florian Biber tells "Vreme". He believes that further development depends on how much the opposition and citizens fight to challenge the election results
The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the way in which the elections were held in Serbia "unacceptable". There are still no congratulations from Europe for the Progressives
Although the illegal financing of parties is a form of corruption, its prosecution is not carried out by special anti-corruption prosecution departments and the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, but by general jurisdiction prosecutors. There is no possibility to apply special techniques in investigations
"We are serious and concrete, and they are not serious and are trying to involve a foreign factor in causing chaos in Serbia," said the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić.
