The possibility that the political parties which organized Serbia against Violence protests will jointly participate in the December elections seems less likely as the elections approach.
The current situation is such that they will participate in the elections as three separate groups of candidates, N1 sources from several parliamentary opposition parties have confirmed.
“The first electoral list would consist of the Democratic Party, the Movement of Serbia, Zdravko Ponoš’s party and Zajedno party. The second electoral list would consist of the Party of Freedom and Justice, the Movement of Free Citizens and the Green-Left Front, along with several other smaller parties and movements, while the third electoral list would be made of the People’s Movement of Serbia, the Ecological Uprising and possibly Miloš Parandilović’s New Face of Serbia,” says the official of one from the parties.
The N1 source also says that Miroslav Aleksić would probably be an independent electoral candidate if there is no single opposition electoral list.
“Aleksić will certainly side with Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta and there is a possibility that the monarchist Miloš Parandilović, with his New Face of Serbia party, will also be on their list. Another option is that Aleksić and Ćuta side with Đilas’s party and that Parandilović sides with one of the right-wing parties. The Green-Left Front will probably sign an agreement with the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP) stipulating joint participation in the Belgrade election, with Dobrica Veselinović as a candidate for the Belgrade mayor. There is also a backup option, in which the Green-Left Front would form a coalition with the Kreni-Promeni movement,” the source adds.
As he says, the issue of non-parliamentary parties, such as Boris Tadić’s Social Democratic Party, was also raised in the talks.
“There was also talk about which direction Tadić’s party will take but they still haven’t reached an agreement within the party about the election,” the source adds.
Distribution of parliamentary seats is the biggest obstacle to unification
The source adds that the distribution of parliamentary and council seats is the biggest problem and obstacle to the opposition’s joint participation in the elections.
“On what basis will you say that one party is stronger and another is weaker? Should we, for example, carry out public opinion research? But then the question arises as to which research is relevant and realistic. There is also the question of financing the campaign and around which topics the campaign will be centred on. The opposition is a very slow decision-maker and I think that this indicates that it is wandering and that personal goals and interests trump the general ones. We also talked about what this means for the citizens and how to handle their disappointment if the opposition is not united at the elections,” the N1 source adds.
The opposition parties will engage in very difficult negotiations regarding elections this month.
“I think it is very bad that these negotiations are hidden from the public eye. I don’t see any reason that everyone should be deprived of information of what has been agreed”, the source goes on to say.
He adds that the right-wing opposition parties will participate in the election in two alliances.
“The first alliance would consist of Zavetnici and Dveri, and the second would be Narodna Partija (not to be confused with Vuk Jeremić’s Narodna Stranka), Novi DSS (New Democratic Party of Serbia) and Dosta je Bilo movement, with a possibility of Milan Stamatović’s Zdrava Srbija joining this alliance,” the source notes.
(N1, 11.10.2023)
https://n1info.rs/vesti/opozicija-vanredni-izbori/
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