On the occasion of 23 August – European Day of Remembrance for Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes of the 20th century, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) uses the opportunity to express its support for victims and families of victims of totalitarian regimes, but also to urge competent institutions not to let them fall into oblivion, which implies a profound confrontation with the controversial aspects of our past.
Decision of the Constitutional Court concerning the CCE’s Initiative
The Constitutional Court made the Decision, acting on the initiative submitted by the CCE, and it abolished the essential part Technical recommendations of the State Election Commission (SEC) for the Epidemiological Protection of Voters During Elections.
The Constitutional Court confirmed the accuracy of the CCE’s allegations that these recommendations of the SEC were unconstitutional and illegal.
We especially emphasize timely acting and quality of the decision of the Constitutional Court, which thus prevented the SEC from putting into question the legality of the voting of a part of the voters.
SEC did not fulfill OSCE recommendations, but additionally regressed
Centre for Civic Education (CCE) points out that the evident non-transparent work of the State Election Commission (SEC) starts to position itself as a negative factor in the assessment of the overall election process. The SEC has managed to make numerous controversial decisions in the past few months, to which the CCE duly warned, but also prosecuted some of them to the competent authorities to bring the SEC’s work within the framework of legality and best practices with joint efforts.
The central work of the SEC remains shrouded in secrecy. Notices of SEC’s sessions are published on the website shortly before, during and sometimes after the end of the sessions. The media cannot directly cover the SEC’s sessions, and press releases from these sessions are rare and crude, as well as the minutes themselves, which are published only after the next session. A single appearance of the SEC’s spokesperson, Mersudin Dautovic, was noted, and it provided more arguments to the critics of the SEC’s work than success in defending the SEC’s positions. Brief, but interesting, the CCE’s experience in observing SEC’s sessions reinforces our recommendation that SEC’s sessions must be open to direct media coverage of the discussion and positions of all its members.
Minister Šehović to publicly explain why he cannot dismiss Pićurić
Centre for Civic Education (CCE) sent a request to Minister Damir Šehović for urgent action on the Proposal for dismissal of the director of the Secondary Electrical Engineering School “Vaso Aligrudić” Veselin Pićurić no. 0601/2019-4924/3 from 24/07/2020. This is the third proposal by three different education inspectors to dismiss Pićurić in the last few years, and the second one in Šehović’s term of office.
As a reminder, this controversial director continuously caused material damage to the school by violating management procedures and rules. The CCE has repeatedly drawn Šehović’s attention to this, since the beginning of his term, directly in written communication and in the public, and this was followed by proposals from various education inspectors for his dismissal, reports and demands of employees with whom the Minister is familiar, indicating that Pićurić acted in a manner that he violated its competencies under Article 82 of the General Law on Education. All this was confirmed by final court judgments. However, Šehović responded by re-electing Pićurić to the same position.
The Constitutional Court confirmed the position of the CCE, the SEC must be brought within the framework of legality and constitutionality
Centre for Civic Education (CCE) welcomes the decision of the Constitutional Court, based on the CCE Initiative, to initiate proceedings of assessing the constitutionality and legality of the provisions of the Technical Recommendations for the Epidemiological Protection of Voters During Elections adopted by the State Election Commission (SEC). This confirmed the position of the CCE, which reacted immediately after the adoption of this document, pointing out that the Technical Recommendations for the Epidemiological Protection of Voters During Elections are unconstitutional, unclear, contradictory and non-applicable.
It is important to note that the Constitutional Court, invoking the provisions of the Constitution, refused to act on that part of the Technical Recommendations which is found to have deleted by the SEC, in the meantime, as the SEC itself recognized their illogicality and unconstitutionality.