Half-Measures Are Not Enough, Institutions Need a “Reset”
Half-measures are insufficient and, given the state of institutions in Serbia, can only prolong the agony. The REM and the Public Service Broadcaster are two bodies that need a “reset”, to be rebuilt from the ground up. Integrity, knowledge, capacity and independence are the key elements needed to improve election administration, revise the voter registry, and define the role of the prosecution. Besides these conclusions, the conference highlighted the pressing need for – dialogue.
The presentation of conclusions and recommendations from expert panel discussions and working groups at the close of CRTA’s conference carried a mild optimism, with a sense that a clear roadmap exists to secure election integrity.
As Rasa Nedeljkov, CRTA’s Program Director, explained, Serbian citizens are not only denied the right to information but are also consistently subjected to intimidation and political pressures.
“We need a series of conversations like these”, stressed Ivana Stevanovic from the Slavko Curuvija Foundation, emphasizing the importance of communicating with representatives of institutions.
It is essential, she said, that RTS establishes editorial integrity and that a mechanism is created for REM to be held accountable for its work.
“Although some try to frame the voter registry audit as a single event that is completed and put to rest, we’ve heard in these discussions that the audit is only the start of a process. The goal is to establish a regular system for registry audit, ongoing control of the voter registry”, explained Pavle Dimitrijevic from CRTA.
In addition to a unified electoral law that would ultimately enable the reform of electoral bodies, Dimitrijevic also spoke about the role of the prosecution:
“We cannot talk about breaking with impunity without prosecutor integrity and a functional response mechanism. There must, therefore, be both people and tools for the job. While the tools are lacking, we discussed ways to equip prosecutors with more options for the prompt response”.
