Serbia's Electoral Laws Head for Final Vote With 163 Amendments
The National Assembly enters the final stage of debate on a set of electoral laws, with 163 amendments filed and the vote scheduled for Friday.
Serbia’s National Assembly enters the final stage of debate on a set of electoral laws on 28 May. The package drew a total of 163 amendments, according to the parliament’s legal service.
The amendments were tabled by Serbian Progressive Party MP Miroslav Petrasinovic as a consolidated package. The text was then split into four separate laws, each with a different number of amendments.
The vote is scheduled for Friday afternoon. Debate began in mid-May and ran for more than two weeks.
Distribution of amendments by law
Of the 163 amendments, the breakdown is as follows:
- Law on the Election of MPs, 81 amendments
- Law on Local Elections, 60 amendments
- Law on the Constitutional Court, 12 amendments
- Law on the Election of the President of the Republic, 10 amendments
The legal service says each amendment was reviewed across three rounds: through the responsible committees, through consolidated debate, and through individual votes on the floor. Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday:
The process is democratic and transparent. Every single amendment was given space for discussion, which is not the case in every state in the region.
What the package changes
The draft revision of the Law on the Election of MPs introduces a new methodology for the allocation of seats. There are detailed rules on the electoral threshold for national minorities.
The draft Law on the Election of the President revises the candidacy procedure, with new deadlines for collecting signatures. The Law on Local Elections updates the composition of municipal electoral commissions.
The Constitutional Court Law amendments change the procedure for appeals in electoral proceedings.
From the opposition, Freedom and Justice Party leader Pavle Grbovic has announced demands for separate votes on selected amendments. The focus is on campaign finance and the obligation to publish donor registers.
People’s Movement of Serbia leader Miroslav Aleksic said the opposition filed 31 amendments across all four laws. The Democratic Party announced it will vote against the entire package on Friday unless the government accepts the transparency amendments.
How long the Assembly spent on the package
Debate opened in mid-May with a consolidated principle reading of the package. The Assembly then moved to individual amendment review, which ran for ten working days.
A pause for the protests at Slavija on 23 May postponed the vote by one week. The new date for the package vote is Friday 29 May.
The ruling SNS announced full voting discipline. Every opposition amendment will be rejected, except those previously adopted by the responsible committees.
Brnabic told Politika on 27 May:
The package does not bring substantive changes to the electoral system, but technical corrections for better operation of electoral procedure ahead of the next elections.
Law professor Ratko Markovic, one of the country’s leading constitutional analysts, wrote in Vreme on 26 May that the package is technical, not strategic, electoral reform. In his view, substantive change would require a new approach that incorporates student demands.
What follows after the vote
State Electoral Commission president Vladimir Dimitrijevic told Tanjug on 26 May that the commission will be ready to apply the changes within ten days of publication in the Official Gazette.
The Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office issued no separate statement. According to N1, the office is monitoring the debate in preparation for any new proceedings that may follow from the revised regulations.
Six opposition parties have already announced a joint press conference for Friday morning, with a review of rejected amendments. SNS has prepared a parallel summary of adopted changes for the same day.
The opposition plans to issue a joint assessment of the full package on Friday afternoon, immediately after the vote. It will form part of the platform for the elections if a joint list deal is reached.
Will the electoral package pass on Friday in the first round with the qualified majority?
