Elections in Serbia: Voting for local authorities scheduled for June 2, when in Belgrade

On the second day of June, voting will be held again throughout Serbia.

The President of the Assembly, Ana Brnabić, announced local elections in 66 local self-government units, where councilors of city assemblies and municipal assemblies will be elected.

Local elections will be held in those municipalities where they were not held in December last year.

Earlier, repeated elections for the Assembly of Belgrade were scheduled for June 2, in which no party secured a majority after the previous vote, on December 17 of the previous year.

Aleksandar Šapić, president of the Provisional Authority of Belgrade, immediately called for elections in 17 Belgrade municipalities, which was done by the president of the Niš City Assembly for the municipalities of Niš.

The prerequisite for calling the elections was the amendments to the Law on Local Elections, which were adopted by the MPs on April 23, by a majority vote.

“The announcement of local elections is the result of a successful dialogue and the adoption by a two-thirds majority in the parliament of amendments to the law on local elections,” said Brnabić.

Among the demands addressed to the authorities, the representatives of the opposition demanded the unification of the local elections with the Belgrade elections.

Part of the opposition coalition Serbia against violence is not satisfied with this solution either, so it announces a boycott of the Belgrade and certain local elections.

The previous elections in Belgrade were marked by numerous complaints from the opposition and foreign observers about the regularity of voting, which the government rejected.

However, since no one in the city assembly secured a majority, the elections are repeated.

Two and a half months after the December elections in Serbia, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) published a report in which there were criticisms of the voting process, but not a clear assessment that they were stolen, as the opposition claimed.

The government and the opposition later held several rounds of talks on election conditions and implementation of ODIHR recommendations, but full implementation was not achieved.