Brnabic, Zannier discuss upcoming local elections

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Friday the atmosphere in Serbia ahead of the June 2 local elections was much different than before last year's December 17 polls.

"The main reason for that is the dialogue established in the National Assembly between the parties of the ruling majority and the opposition," Brnabic said at a meeting with the head of the ODIHR observation mission, Ambassador Lamberto Zannier.

She informed Zannier that, besides parliamentary parties, civil society organisations (CRTA, CeSID and Transparency Serbia) were involved in the dialogue as well, an official statement said.

"For the first time in the history of the Serbian parliament, a working group is chaired by a representative of a civil society organisation, which is now the case with the Working Group for Advancement of the Electoral Process," Brnabic said.

She noted that the working group would also work on all previous ODIHR recommendations that had not been fully implemented, rather than just on recommendations from the final ODIHR report released in February this year.

Zannier welcomed the establishment of broad dialogue in the parliament and commended Brnabic's efforts in that field.

He highlighted as especially positive the transparency of the work on implementing the ODIHR recommendations and the involvement of civil society organisations in the entire process.