Re-registration of political parties in Serbia goes slower than expected!

By Milen Vesovic
Belgrade, Sept. 07 2009 (Serbia Today) - Although the re-registration of parties under the new Law on political parties started on 23 July, only three parties have registered so far. Some think that those Parties which have been registered already rushed to do so and collect required number of signatures, before the adoption of the new Law on Information, which apparently greatly reduced their popularity among citizens.
Number of political analysts and sociologists say that many citizens of Serbia are distancing themselves from political parties that failed their expectations. They point to the fact that the only three parties so far registered are the ones, which belong to the present ruling coalition, Democratic Party of Boris Tadic, G17+ of Mladjan Dinkic and the Sandzak Democratic Party of Rasim Ljajic.
Right now there is over 600 political parties registered in Serbia under the old law. The major requirement under the new Law is that in order for party to re-register, it has to submit signatures of 10.000 members ( or thousand signatures if the Party is representative of the ethnic minority group). Deadline for the re-registration is January 23rd.