The Chairperson of the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues Milica Nikolic said that the objective of the public hearings is to include the general public in the process of advancing electoral legislation. She reminded that so far there have been four public hearings, in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Nis on the topic Presentation of the Draft Law amending and modifying the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll, prepared by the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process.

“After today’s public hearing, there will be three more on the same topic in Novi Sad Kragujevac and Belgrade. That way, we will enable a wide circle of participants to air their views and contribute to the improvement of electoral legislation”, said Nikolic.

The proponent of the law, member of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process, Dr Ugljesa Mrdic, informed the present about the proposed amendments contained in the Draft Law amending and modifying the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll.

He emphasised that it is envisaged that the ministry responsible for administrative affairs, until the electoral roll is finalised, publish on its website the number of voters per local self-government unit every seven days, as well as data on the number of changes in the part of the electoral roll individually for each local self-government unit and the legal basis for those changes in the previous seven days. The competent ministry will also provide insight into data on voters (name, name of one parent and surname) classified by polling stations for the area of the local self-government unit, as well as data on the number of voters per household, i.e. address and apartment number, Mrdic stated.

He also pointed out that it is envisaged that members and deputy members of the Republic Electoral Commission have the right to inspect the electoral roll, who also have the right to inspect all data on voters on the roll, except for the unique citizen identification number.

In presenting the Draft Law, Ugljesa Mrdic stated that the voter register audit is a process of analysing and assessing the quality, accuracy, reliability and efficiency of maintaining and updating the electoral roll, and that it is envisaged that the voter register audit will be carried out by the Commission for Audit, Verification and Control of the Accuracy and Updating of the Voter Register.

Speaking about the competencies and composition of this Commission, Mrdic stated that the Commission should consist of ten members and their deputies appointed by the National Assembly, of which eight members and deputies are appointed at the proposal of parliamentary groups in the National Assembly, while two members of the Commission and their deputies are appointed at the proposal of associations that have been authorised by the Republic Electoral Commission to observe at least three election procedures and have published at least three reports on the findings of the observation of those election procedures.

He also said that parliamentary groups that are part of the parliamentary majority propose five members and five deputy members of the Commission, while the three largest opposition parliamentary groups each propose one member and one deputy member of the Commission, while associations propose two members and two deputy members of the Commission.

He also informed the attending about the conditions and procedure for proposing candidates for members and deputy members of the Commission, which is carried out by the competent committee, which determines a list of ten candidates for members and deputy members of the Commission and submits it to the National Assembly for consideration and adoption. Members and deputy members of the Commission are scheduled to be elected for a five-year term, Mrdic said.

He stated that the draft law underwent five amendments, in order to align it with the recommendations of the ODIHR, from which a positive opinion was received, all with the aim of improving the electoral process.

The public hearing was attended by members and deputy members of the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues, MPs, members of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process, representatives of ministries, members of the Republic Electoral Commission, international organisations and the City Administration of the City of Nis.