Civic Movement of Roma Serbia Exits Election List Talks
The party's presidency decided on September 23 to leave talks on a joint Roma ticket for the October 25 election, six days after the Democratic Union of Roma made the same move.
On September 23, the Civic Movement of Roma of Serbia became the second Roma party in the past six days to walk away from talks on a joint ticket for the early parliamentary election on October 25. The Democratic Union of Roma was first to do so, on September 17.
The Movement’s presidency said it decided to leave the negotiations, which had begun on September 5, after the concept put forward by the Roma Union of Serbia was not accepted at the talks. Besides the Civic Movement of Roma of Serbia and the Roma Union of Serbia, the Roma Party and the Democratic Union of Roma had taken part in the negotiations on a joint Roma list from the very start, meaning all four parties then in the running.
According to the Movement, all four parties agreed in principle to a joint run at their first joint meeting. The trouble began later in the talks, when the parties did not accept the proposals put forward by the Roma Union of Serbia, so no deal on a joint list was reached at that point. The Movement says it kept trying afterward to bring the negotiators back to the table, without success, and its presidency ultimately decided to leave the talks on a joint list.
The Democratic Union of Roma had already announced, in its own statement on September 17, that it was abandoning any further coalition with the Roma Union of Serbia and a joint run in the upcoming election. With two exits a week apart, only two of the four parties that originally sat at the table formally remain in the talks: the Roma Union of Serbia, whose proposals were the sticking point, and the Roma Party, which has not yet publicly stated its position on how the negotiations should proceed.
The outcome of the talks matters for the Roma community in the upcoming election. An agreement would produce a single list backed by all four Roma parties, while its absence opens the door to votes being split across several lists, or to the Civic Movement of Roma of Serbia and the Democratic Union of Roma running on their own or in some other coalition. Neither party has yet said how exactly it plans to run on October 25.
None of the statements issued so far has named the people who led the negotiations on the joint list for the individual parties. Just over a month remains before the early parliamentary election, a short enough window that any new attempt at an agreement, should the two remaining parties decide to pursue one, would have to move quickly.
