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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Stricter criteria for establishing political parties

Belgrade, 18 April 2008

Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Milan Markovic said today that the Draft law on political parties envisages stricter criteria for establishing political parties and marks the beginning of creation of normative framework for regulation of their work.

Author: Tanjug

Speaking at a roundtable themed "Draft law on political parties – presentation and discussion“, Markovic said that this law will enable the beginning of reform of legislation in the field of political organisation and election processes.

According to this draft law, 5,000 certified signatures will be necessary from now on for establishing a political party, and those parties will have the obligation to submit every seven years the signatures of at least 5,000 of their members. If they fail to do so, they will be erased from the registry, Markovic explained. He said that the new law prescribes the deadline of six months for re-registration of all existing political organisations, which will have to submit their statute, programme and membership statements of their members, at least in the number needed for establishing a political party.

After that deadline, the number of political parties will be reduced from the existing 550 to almost 20, while after the two election rounds, there will be only five to six active parties left.

Speaking about the need for a new law, he recalled that the existing laws on political organisations and the formation of social and political organisations date bake to 1990 and are not in accordance with the new Serbian Constitution and other regulations.

A simplified registration procedure for political organisations and the absence of mechanisms for ascertaining whether all registered political organisations are indeed active, resulted in the fact that for the past 18 years the register of political parties has shown that 617 parties were registered, of which 550 are considered to be active, while only 57 lost their registration, said the Minister.

He said that he expects that the draft law on political parties will reach before the parliament in September, and added that following the adoption of the law, new laws on the financing of political parties and election campaigns should also be adopted.

Special representative of the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Konstantin Jerokostopulous said that the people must be in the very centre of the political process, and explained that for this it is necessary to create a framework for the free development of parties, which would not limit their functioning.

Head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia Hans Ola Urstad said that the law on political parties is the foundation of a political system which will bring the parties closer to the public, and pointed to the fact that all political parties should be more accountable to their voters and the general public.