The Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Predrag Markovic, informed chairpersons of deputies’ groups at the National Assembly that he had postponed the start of the First Sitting of the First Regular Session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in 2006 for 10 a.m. on Monday 27 March.

The Second Sitting of Assembly’s First Regular Session in 2006 is to start as soon as the First Sitting ends.

Mr Markovic decided to postpone the sitting as a large number of amendments had been submitted to the bills proposed for discussion at the sitting, and as the Government and the appropriate Committees would be unable to process the amendments before the sitting was originally due to start.

As the proposed agenda of the First Sitting includes the election of a number of public officials elected exclusively by the National Assembly, Mr Markovic called on chairpersons of deputies’ groups to prepare, in accordance with legislation adopted by the Assembly, proposals for the election of additional officials that were not included in the original agenda.

Mr Markovic has on several occasions already informed both the deputies and the public that deadlines were looming for the election of the public defender and other officials elected by the National Assembly; if these are not elected, laws already adopted cannot be implemented.