BIRODI: Serbian parliament must disclose whether it has formed the election campaign supervisory board

BELGRADE – The Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI) stressed that the Serbian parliament has still not published any decision on forming the supervisory board for the election campaign ahead of the October 25 parliamentary elections, as the Danas daily reports.

Under the Law on the Election of MPs, the board has 10 members appointed by parliament — five from the ruling parties and five from the opposition. Its task is to monitor pre-election activities, flag irregularities, check whether public media services ensure fair representation of electoral lists, and warn about actions that threaten the equality of campaign participants.

If a campaign participant incites violence, the board is obliged to immediately initiate proceedings before the competent authorities, BIRODI noted.

BIRODI added that campaign monitoring must exist throughout the entire election campaign and that a late appointment of members cannot substitute for timely reactions to irregularities, unequal media representation or calls for violence. It therefore called on parliament to immediately publish the decision on the board’s formation and the names of its members — if the decision has been made — and if not, to publicly confirm so and take urgent steps to form it.