CeSID – About the Re-run Elections

CeSID has welcomed the adoption of the Law on Alterations and Amendments of the Law on Election of the President of the Republic by the National Assembly, which will be a basis for holding the re-run presidential elections, but has also forewarned that it would be necessary to change the practice of the last minute alteration of the electoral conditions.

At the same time, CeSID emphasises that such a process has again overlooked the fact that deficiencies and inconsistencies of the Law on Election of Deputies, the appropriate application of which is referred by the Law on Election of the President of the Republic, could contribute to the electoral legislation becoming again the source of serious problems in the upcoming re-run elections for the President of the Republic.

CeSID recalls the fact that within just five days the organisation managed to collect 15,000 signatures by which the citizens supported not only the alteration of the Law on Election of the President of the Republic, but also the Law on Election of Deputies, and that the organisation will continue, in that respect, the activities aimed at fundamental re-construction of the entire electoral legislation in the Republic.

The monitoring of the upcoming re-run elections will engage all nine CeSID Regional Offices, 20 Local Offices and 165 Municipal Co-ordinating CeSID Teams, a well as the network of monitors-volunteers accredited with the Republican Electoral Commission (RIK).

CeSID will also have the accredited monitors in the Republican Electoral Commission (RIK) and the municipal electoral commissions, as well as at all polling stations.

CeSID will monitor behaviour of the media in the pre-elections period as well as during the pre-elections silence.

CeSID will monitor all activities and processes during the course of preparation and holding of the re-run elections, including the process of printing the ballot papers.

Reports on all these activities, the media behaviour, the course of pre-elections campaign and the course of voting scheduled for December the 8th, will be presented to the public in the Press Conferences to be held regularly at the Media Centre in Belgrade.

The Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) was established as the first non-governmental and non-profit organisation in 1997.

The Centre was primarily established with the goal to organise the impartial monitoring of elections in Serbia, including the monitoring of the media behaviour, the process of voting and the parallel vote tabulation.

The idea to establish the Centre originated from the need to approach the elections held in Serbia and/or Yugoslavia in an objective and impartial manner.

Not being burdened by any ideology, or any kind of subjective passion (except for the passion for democracy and the rule of law), once again we have mobilised, like in case of all elections held since 1997, all our potentials for the monitoring of the upcoming re-run presidential elections in Serbia.