Boycott, Of Course! Debate

Marijana Pajvancic, professor of Constitutional Law at Novi Sad University, said last night, at the �Boycott, Of Course!� debate held at the Museum of Vojvodina, that the referendum process won�t be controlled properly, having in mind that the Referendum Commission members come solely from the ranks of political parties that support the New Constitution.

She reminded that in the recent Referendum on Independence in Montenegro, the Commission included members of the two opposed camps, both supporters of independence and unionists. Because of that, Pajvanic suspects �the regularity of the whole process�.

Srecko Mihajlovic, sociologist, said that 20 percent of the total number of registered voters in Serbia are people that either live outside Serbia or are prevented to vote and added that about 20 percent of voters are dedicated abstainers, people who don�t vote under any conditions.

"They have about 60 percent of registered voters to count on, including those who publicly declared their opposition to this Constitution, like some political parties, NGOs, trade unions and a number of Vojvodina citizens�, said Mihajlovic.

In his view, an additional obstacle to securing the majority lies in the fact that the Democratic Party (DS) has many free-thinking and insubordinate members in its ranks.

His colleague Jovan Komsic believes that Belgrade-based political elites are �manically afraid of decentralization and federalization�.

He reminds that the proposals submitted by the Government�s Team of Experts and President Tadic were close to a consensus on the foundations of a modern decentralized state, but said that the proposal quickly vanished like �the snows of yesteryear�.

Komsic says that the true authors of the new Constitution were the leader of the radicals Vojislav Seselj, and his deputy Tomislav Nikolic. He comments that the Government accepted the �radical�s vision of decentralization of Serbia and autonomy for Vojvodina.

Miljenko Dereta, President of Civic Initiatives, also criticized the Constitution. However, he believes that the boycott is not the right answer, that people have to go out and vote against the Constitution.

In his view, boycotts in Serbia always fail and that the single successful boycott was the boycott in Kosovo, in which �the whole Albanian nation with its elites boycotted Belgrade�.

The debate was organized by the Vojvodina NGO Initiative for Boycott of the Referendum.