President of the Serbian Parliament Ivica Dacic announced a referendum on changing the Constitution of Serbia, which will be held on January 16, 2022.
In the decision to call a republican referendum, citizens will express their opinion on the referendum question, which reads: "Are you in favor of confirming the Act on changing the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia?"
Deputies previously adopted the Act on Amendments to the Constitution of Serbia, the Constitutional Law for the Implementation of the Act on Amendments to the Constitution and the Decision on Calling for a Republic Referendum to Confirm the Act on Amendments to the Constitution.
The proposed changes to the Constitution refer to the part on the judiciary. During the discussion, the Minister of Justice, Maja Popović, pointed out that "the goal of changing the Constitution is to increase the legal security of citizens" because only an independent judiciary and an independent public prosecution guarantee the protection of their rights in court proceedings.
U to the Assembly he had no one to contradict since there is none in it opposition.
"Changes to the Constitution are foreseen as an activity in the action plan for negotiation chapter 23. Reforms in the area of justice are also a condition for further reform of the legal system," explained Popović.
The constitutional changes also refer to the permanence and election of judges, the return of the name Supreme Court and the strengthening of the function of prosecutors.
This will be the first referendum that will be held under the new Referendum Law adopted by the National Assembly and signed by the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vučić on November 25.
Vučić previously claimed for days that he did not know whether he had signed it, while on November 27, several environmental organizations blocked roads throughout Serbia for one hour, demanding that the Law on Expropriation and the Law on Referendum be withdrawn.
The organization Kreni-Promeni has announced a new road blockade in Serbia for Saturday, December 4, with the same request.
In the petition of this organization, entitled "Referendum according to the citizens", it is already stated that the draft Law on Referendum and People's Initiative "completely violates the rule of law, which implies that such laws cannot be passed immediately before the implementation of the referendum". It is further stated that this is an act "contrary to international standards", done without an adequate public debate, and the proof of how much the government was interested in the opinion of the citizens is the fact "that in the invitation for the public debate, an incorrect email was specified for the submission of objections and comments".
They also claimed that the adopted Proposal foresees that the new Referendum Law will enter into force the following day after its adoption and publication in the Official Gazette, which the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia allows only in exceptional cases.
And so it was.
Kreni-promeni assesses that although the census is not a comparative standard, by abolishing it and with the aforementioned restrictions on citizen participation, the political authorities are thus enabled to impose any decision and sell off the country.
Judge Miodag Marić said in the show "Let's understand" on N1 that it is not the time to change the Constitution, "because the atmosphere in society and the issue of legitimacy in the Parliament are not the conditions in which it is changed".
Professor of the Faculty of Law Miodrag Jovanović assessed that the current constitutional arrangements are not so bad as to produce the situation we have, but that the problem is that "the other branches of government are not separated as the Constitution provides."
He asked whether "anyone thinks that the Assembly is a body that thinks for itself and is a counterweight to the executive power", or that the Government and the President are two branches of government as defined by the Constitution.
"Every day we see that one man speaks on behalf of all authorities - the police, the prosecution, the courts," Jovanović snapped.
AI/BBC/Danas/N1/Fonet
