Having decided not to accept the amendment to the Bill on amendments to the Anti-Corruption Agency Act submitted by the National Assembly deputies upon the CRTA’s initiative, the Government of the Republic of Serbia showed that it was not interested in substantially improving the electoral conditions.
Due to suspected misuse of public resources for political purposes, CRTA will file another criminal charges as it found that among the more than 200 vehicles registered outside Lučani, observed on the day of the local elections in that municipality, on December 16th, 2018, there was a Skoda Superb owned by the Government of the AP of Vojvodina.
The decision of the Special Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad to dismiss a criminal charges pressed against an unknown perpetrator from the municipal administration of Šid as a result of irregularities observed on the day of the local elections in Lučani, is another example of the unwillingness of institutions to enforce laws and to continuously protect fair and free elections.
We urge the competent prosecutor’s office and the Anti-Corruption Agency to urgently react and initiate the proceedings against Igor Mirović, president of the Executive Committee of the AP Vojvodina Council who admitted in the N1 TV show that he had committed a crime of misuse of public resources for political purposes.
CRTA filed complaints to the Anti-Corruption Agency against Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, and Minister of labour, employment, veteran and social policy Zoran Đorđević, for violating legal provisions preventing misuse of public resources in order to promote a political party.
The CRTA welcomes the decision of the OSCE/ODIHR mission that assessed that it is necessary that this international organisation monitors the upcoming elections in Serbia to the fullest extent.
By adopting amendments to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, the Anti-Corruption Agency Act and the Law on Financing Political Activities, the National Assembly missed the opportunity to contribute to a more efficient prevention of public officials’ campaigning.
In order to substantially improve the election conditions, and above all, to disable the public officials’ campaign, the CRTA legal team made a set of amendments to the Bill on amendments to the Anti-Corruption Agency Act and the Law on Prevention of Corruption that have just entered the parliamentary procedure. The amendments were sent today to all MPs of the National Assembly, stressing that their adoption would contribute to the creation of conditions for free and fair elections.
The Anti-Corruption Law which was adopted today does not allow curbing of public resources abuse and the prevention of public officials’ campaign, and is in fact yet another missed opportunity to improve legal framework for the conduct of the elections is Serbia, assessed the organisation CRTA.
