Parties need to show self-control and respect for citizens

BELGRADE – The Protector of the Citizens, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and the Anti-Corruption Agency appealed Friday to all participants in the election campaign ahead of Serbia’s early parliamentary elections to respect “the letter and spirit of the rules” and to establish a higher degree of self-control and respect for citizens.

In a joint statement, Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic and the Agency called on all the participants in the March 16 elections to “refrain from any activity that could either directly or indirectly threaten the true freedom of the citizens in the exercise of suffrage.”

The three independent oversight bodies stress as particularly unacceptable and inappropriate any use of health or social needs of citizens and use of public services for electoral purposes.

They stress as unacceptable and inappropriate to use children during the election campaign and to lead aggressive door-to-door campaigns coupled with using citizens’ names in their records, as citizens view such activity as a threat.

Even though the control bodies, within the limits of their powers, act upon citizens’ individual complaints and by official duty to protect and promote the achieved level of political rights, it is still “necessary for the electoral competitors to establish a higher degree of self-control and respect for the right of citizens to true freedom of choice,” the statement said.