The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) proposed to the National Coordinating Body (NCT) to hold a session where important issues and dilemmas related to the holding of elections in the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic would be discussed.
CDT Executive Director Dragan Koprivica suggested that representatives of state institutions and non-governmental organizations dealing with elections be invited to the session in order to exchange opinions on problems and discuss solutions in direct communication.
"After this, we invite you for the NKT to adopt the rules and guidelines related to elections in the conditions of the coronavirus as soon as possible. It is of key importance for the democratic election process that the rules are known in advance to all its actors," Koprivica's letter to the president of the NKT states. Milutin Simović.
According to him, there are two key groups of questions to which the NKT must provide answers as soon as possible, so that both the election administration and voters, as well as election observers, are timely informed and prepared for the application of health measures during the election process.
"The first group of questions refers to enabling every citizen who has the right to vote to exercise that right," said Koprivica.
He believes that it is important how to enable the sick to vote, whether they are in hospitals or receiving home treatment, and to vote for those who are under health surveillance measures, in home self-isolation or in institutional quarantines.
"Answers to some of these questions are not easy to give, since the space for intervention is limited by the current electoral legislation," Koprivica added.
As he stated, the second group of questions refers to voting at the polling station, which must be organized in a way to protect the health of all participants in the election process.
"This is especially important in the context of exercising the right to vote, because on election day no one should be forced to make a decision whether to vote at the risk of their health. Citizens, that is, voters, must be informed in time about all these issues," said Koprivica.
There are, as he added, many other issues of the field work of the parties during the campaign and the rules of behavior of all actors in limited conditions.
"The CDT believes that it is in the indisputable public interest that these issues be resolved as soon as possible. There is no time to lose, and the conditions in which the campaign takes place are becoming more and more uncertain day by day," concluded Koprivica.
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