At the sitting held on 23 October and chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Oliver Dulic, the Constitutional Issues Committee exchanged opinions on the application of the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and the Constitutional Law for the enforcement of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia pertaining to the election of the Mayor of the City of Belgrade.

The discussion voiced the legal argumentation according to which the Speaker of the National Assembly is obligated to call an election for Mayor within 15 days from the end of the previous Mayor’s mandate, as well as the opposite legal argumentation based on the reading of the provisions of the Constitution, Constitutional Law and the Law on Local Self-Government.

After an exhaustive discussion, the Committee reached an opinion that the Constitutional Law states that elections for officials in the assemblies of local self-government units must be called by 31 December 2007. The Constitution predicts that municipal assemblies decide on the election of executive organs, the election of the executive organs of a city and the City of Belgrade are dictated by law, and the mandate of executive organs of a municipality stops on the day of the constitution of a newly elected municipal assembly and is dictated by law.

Thus, according to the majority the Constitutional Issues Committee members the conditions for calling the elections for the Mayor of the City of Belgrade within 15 days from the end of mandate have not been met since the elections for the Assembly of the City of Belgrade officials are less then six months away.