Aleksic: No agreement at parliamentary Collegium meeting

BELGRADE - The whip of the opposition National Movement of Serbia party in the Serbian parliament Miroslav Aleksic said on Wednesday no agreement had been reached with the ruling coalition on Belgrade local elections at a meeting of the parliamentary Collegium earlier in the day.

Noting that he was uncertain the elections would be held at all, Aleksic said the ruling coalition had decided to "run in the elections without the opposition."

Speaking to reporters in the parliament building, he declined to say whether the opposition would boycott the elections and added that a decision on future activities would be made in the coming days.

Aleksic said the ruling coalition had shown no sincere intentions regarding the elections.

"We wanted to secure the basic conditions, and it is obvious they have no intention of changing anything. They do not agree to elections being held on the same day - there is no explanation for that and the failure to agree to that shows they intend to continue the practice of population movements and ghost voters," Aleksic said.

He said Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic had informed the opposition she would call the Belgrade elections on Wednesday.

He added that the opposition had received confirmation that holding the Belgrade elections simultaneously with local elections in several municipalities in Serbia was unacceptable to the ruling coalition.

"They have decided that there will be no further talks about that," Aleksic said, adding that continuing discussions about other recommendations was thus impossible.

He said the authorities had done almost nothing to address ODIHR recommendations regarding issues including pressure on voters and equal treatment in the media.

Hope for Serbia MP Vojislav Mihailovic said the ruling coalition had no desire or political will to address three opposition demands aimed at securing the bare minimum of conditions for "somewhat fair and honest" elections.