Serbia got its new parliament on Tuesday after the mandates of all 250 MPs were approved at a constitutive session in which opposition members walked out in front of the podium with banners and whistles in protest before leaving the parliamentary chamber.
The ruling party members took the oath by reciting a pre-prepared text while opposition members left the chamber. Some of them, the NADA coalition and members of ‘Serbia Against Violence’, took their oath in the lobby of the parliament.
Borko Stefanović from Serbia Against Violence stated that he believes that “despite all obstructions and the unprecedented police presence in the Assembly, citizens were able to witness an illegal and illegitimate situation.”
“This parliament was built on election fraud. This represented the ruling party’s defence of their election theft behind police cordons and the Praetorian Guard. I think citizens could see that this is neither a normal parliament nor is it founded on the will of the people of Serbia, but on election fraud,” he said.
European Parliament has now called for an independent international investigation by legal experts and institutions into irregularities in the parliamentary, provincial and local elections in Serbia, focusing on the elections in Belgrade, as stated in a working document. A vote on the issue is scheduled for 8 February.
(Jelena Nikolić | Euractiv.rs)
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Source: euractiv.com
