ПРОМЕНЕ ИЗБОРНИХ ПРАВИЛА – НОВА РЕШЕЊА, КОРАК НАПРЕД?
ELECTION RULES CHANGES: NEW SOLUTIONS, A STEP FORWARD?

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyzes the novelties contained in the current electoral legislation, which was established at the beginning of the year and implemented in the elections held in April. The paper aims is to evaluate whether recently enacted electoral laws contribute to the establishment of a higher degree of democracy and transparency in the procedures of electing a member of parliament, the President and the councillors of assemblies of local self-government units. The Law on the Election of Members of Parliaments, which serves as the main electoral law, is in the focus of the paper. The analysis includes the following segments of electoral legislation: suffrage, electoral administration, protection of electoral law, affirmative action measures and observation of the work of election authorities. We also notice that the essential components of the electoral system-the size of the electoral unit, the process of candidate selection, the type of electoral list and the electoral formula for the distribution of mandates -remained unchanged, although the necessity of their change was pointed out several times. A step forward was made by the solution in the electoral legislation, which made a distinction between persons who are partially and those who are completely divested of legal capacity. The intermediate level of administration is introduced when it comes to electoral administration. It is proven that there is a lack of readiness to establish an impartial administration that would oversee the electoral process competently and professionally. The new electoral law keeps the patterns of political influence on the composition, and consequently the decisionmaking of electoral commissions. When it comes to the protection of the electoral right, the existing twotier system has been upgraded with the introduction of a new legal instrument: a request for annulment of voting at the polling station. Appeals against the decision on the appointment of a member and deputy member of the electoral commission are another step forward. When is about affirmative action measures, they come to the fore, especially in relation to members of national minorities. The national minority electoral list is given preference during the phase of distributing mandates and nominations. Another encouraging development is the election law’s first-ever regulation of local and international observers. Comparing the newly established legal framework to the earlier law, there are unquestionable certain advances. However, a rare opportunity to eliminate many of the noted shortcomings in this area, was lost, and the problematic practice of amending electoral legislation before an election remained. The protection of electoral rights, although normatively improved, during the last elections showed its bad side. The (un)expected multiple reruns of (only) parliamentary elections at one polling station significantly extended the announcement of the final election results. The integrity of the electoral process as a whole was impacted by this. However, the primary barriers to the implementation of electoral laws continue to be the absence of democratic political culture, lack of voter responsibility on the part of the electoral administration, and a lack of voter understanding.

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