The Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform today reached conclusions, based on which the Draft Law on Financing Political Entities and Election Campaigns should be established on April 15th.
The first conclusion of the Committee is that a meeting of the working group will be held on April 9th, to which all suggestions for the Draft Law will be submitted by then.
"The recommendations received will then be implemented at the working group session. By April 9, we expect the NGO sector to send the Committee members a roadmap that includes the formation of working groups to work on the remaining laws within the framework of electoral reform," said Committee co-chair Nikola Rakočević (DPS).
The second conclusion is to schedule a Committee session on April 15th at which the Draft Law will be determined and sent for a 15-day debate.
"At that session, a roadmap will be established, which includes the formation of working groups within which the remaining laws within the framework of electoral reform will be worked on. In this way, we will finally make important steps on the path of dynamic and successful work that is expected of us," said Rakočević.
At the beginning of the session, the head of the Europe Now parliamentary group, Vasilije Čarapić, called on all members of the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform to reach an agreement that "whatever happens externally" that does not concern electoral reform should not affect the work of this body.
The Electoral Reform Committee resumed work today after a three-month blockade. The agenda includes the Draft Amendments to the Law on Financing Political Entities and Election Campaigns.
"I am sure that we can reach a minimum agreement on some things and not block the work. We are all aware of the great obligation we have before us and that this is essential for our EU path," said Čarapić, who is the co-chair of the Committee, at the meeting.
The Committee continues its work after a break, or blockade of almost three months, caused by the opposition's decision to leave it at the end of last year in protest at the manner in which the Parliament concluded the termination of Dragana Đuranović's judicial function at the Constitutional Court. After part of the opposition signed an agreement with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić (PES) on March 15 to resolve the political crisis, the opposition returned to the parliamentary benches last week, and thus the Committee, which was formed in December 2023, was unblocked.
The Committee held four sessions from January to early April last year, and then did not meet until the end of June, because part of the opposition made the continuation of its work conditional on the withdrawal of the decision to introduce compulsory administration in Šavnik. Since the government implemented the opposition's condition, the Committee held a session at the end of June, at which it was agreed to propose an extension of the deadline for its work for a year (until the end of this year instead of the end of 2024) and to focus on the Draft Law on Financing Political Entities and Election Campaigns.
Committee member from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Mihailo Andjušić, said that he thought this Committee had prospects, but said that the opposition would not support its work if previous practices were repeated.
"If practices from the previous period are repeated, in terms of some new initiatives that conflict with the rule of law, know that you will not have support for the work of this committee from the opposition," he said.
He had objections to the changes made to the Draft after the last meetings regarding this.
"It would be good if we were informed about these changes, it is not polite to agree on the Draft today after the dilemmas raised regarding the changes," he said and asked for the specific changes that were made to be listed.
Čarapić said that the latest version of the Draft corresponds to what they themselves agreed on at the last session on December 16th.
He said that the Committee Secretariat had submitted the version that had been agreed upon by the working group.
"After that, in mid-December, we had a meeting of political entities, where we considered what the working group submitted. At those meetings, we had a few conclusions. Specifically, some of them related to Article 5 - adding a position related to the independent club. We also have certain changes in the sanctions section that relate to some suggestions we received from ASK. These are not changes that were made outside the Committee," he said.
Boris Mugoša (SD) reminded that they have five mandatory laws by the end of the year.
"We have very little time and I ask that we agree on this today, that all corrections are sublimated within the Working Group, that we put it up for public debate as soon as possible, because much more complex laws await us," said Mugoša.
Koprivica: The law must be reformist and anti-corruption
The executive director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Dragan Koprivica, agreed with Andjušić that the changes should have been sent to everyone.
"Regarding the Draft, we were at the last meetings when these finer points were being discussed, but you are right, Mr. Andjušić, that this should have been recorded and sent to everyone," he said.
He said that this law must be reformist and anti-corruption and should change bad political practices in this area, increase transparency and try to achieve a better and fairer electoral process.
"If we look at this, I'm afraid we won't get an anti-corruption and reform law. That doesn't mean I think the people who worked on it made a mistake, but it needs to be looked at and analyzed more carefully," said Koprivica.
He recalled that it was agreed in December that the CDT and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) would submit suggestions at a public hearing, but he believes that they should do so now and organize a working group meeting to see if anything can be implemented.
"I'm afraid we entered that logic when we were making the IBAR laws. And then, in order to meet certain EU requirements and get IBAR, which I welcome, we made a couple of superficial laws that we are changing again, and not even a year has passed. To prevent that from happening to us, we need to have one or two more rounds of discussions about it and try to make this law better," said Koprivica.
He believes that without changes to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, the Criminal Code and other vital laws, this law will not be anti-corruption, but rather the legalization of the current situation and its effects in a year will not be significant.
"I hope we are all on the same page that this should be a comprehensive, not a blanket, legislative reform," said Koprivica.
Most Committee members asked for more time to familiarize themselves with the amendments.
Drakić: We need to go through it article by article.
ASK Director Dušan Drakić said that it should be carried out article by article and process by process in the entire area.
He proposed seven key things that should bring the biggest changes to this law.
Among them is the restriction on the use of budget funds in election campaigns, because, as he said, very little has been touched upon there.
"There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, some deleted, and maybe one unit of the working group should be dedicated to that," he said.
As he added, in an official campaign, one must specify what one wants to see and what not when it comes to officials.
"The third is the duration of the campaign and the responsibility of the person in the campaign. We have a situation where a party in Nikšić opened a bank account and designated a responsible person, that responsible person is responsible for everything that the party does from March 20th to April 13th, when the elections are. For everything that happened from January 20th to March 20th, no one is responsible, if something happened, and it could happen," he said.
He pointed out that the deadlines and the method of ensuring transparency, through seven-day, 15-day reports... are quite burdensome for both government bodies and parties, and a measure needs to be found.
He also pointed out that when it comes to proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, amendments to both the Criminal Code and other laws are needed.
"The sanctions for being one day late in submitting a report are the same as for not submitting a report at all. And they are five thousand or ten thousand, which is huge. If we talk about the biggest changes that the Draft brings - one is the collection of data, the status of own funds, third parties in the campaign and the regulation on accessibility standards. That is a good way, it is good to do it," he said.
He also proposed the inclusion of other institutions in campaign control, because he believes that this is not only the task of ASK, but also of the Agency for Electronic Media, the State Election Commission, the Ministry of Finance...
Zlatko Vujović (CEMI) said that a public debate should be held as soon as possible and that it should last longer, a month, and that during that period there should be as many intensive meetings of the working group as possible to consider the suggestions.
"Why don't we form other working groups and have people start working so we don't waste time?" he asked.
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