Student list: plenums vet candidates ahead of the elections

Students in occupation are finalising the procedure for an electoral list to run in the upcoming parliamentary vote. Faculty-level plenums are now in the closing phase of candidate vetting, but the names will not be released until the elections are formally called.

The list is built across three levels, sources close to the student plenums say: local plenums, city-level working groups, and university coordination bodies. Each body has a role in selecting candidates based on agreed seat quotas.

How the vetting works

After a preliminary list is set, plenums move to a verification phase. According to the Faculty of Philosophy Students’ Parliament, the vetting has two stages:

• submission of evidence and arguments to exclude individual candidates
• a plenum vote to keep or remove a candidate from the list

Vetting criteria, set out in student working group materials, include respect for the non-partisan principle, consistent participation in the occupation, and no past membership of parties that have held power over the last ten years.

Seat quotas per university

Each city in occupation, according to student representatives, decides how to select its share of the seats. Some do this through local plenums, others through a university working group. The final per-university seat count, sources close to the coordination say, depends on the number of faculties in occupation in each city and the number of registered students.

The list will not be published until parliamentary elections are formally called, and any changes to the list’s composition will be taken collectively, reads a joint statement from the plenums of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac universities.

The decision to keep names confidential was taken to shield individuals from pressure by the authorities and the media before the campaign officially begins.

Public reactions

The Serbian Progressive Party has repeatedly said the student list is not a political formation but a continuation of the protests by other means. The pro-European opposition has said the list could pull away part of the currently undecided electorate.

Part of the student plenum in Novi Sad is proposing, instead of an electoral list, the publication of a declaration binding future MPs to specific reforms. That debate is not closed yet.

Calendar and time pressure

Under the current Law on Election of MPs, the campaign runs for 45 days from the day elections are called. The students reckon they need at least 14 days after that to finalise the list, so the first names are expected to enter the public domain in July or early August.

Vucic earlier this week called on voters to back students placed on the SNS list, which all plenums rejected as an attempt to co-opt names.

Can the student list hold the confidentiality of its names all the way to the day elections are called?