"Give Vojvodina greater powers"

The new Vojvodina statute is limited by Serbia's bad constitution, Nenad Čanak believes.

Source: B92, Beta
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Čanak, who is the leader of the League of Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV), a member of the Democratic Party-led pre-election coalition, spoke for B92 on Friday.

He said the LSV will accept the draft statute, tabled by the Democratic Party, "only after Vojvodina regains powers it had before Slobodan Milošević's reign".

Although the proposed legislation has not yet been publically revealed, the media are unofficially reporting that it will give Vojvodina a government, ministers, while the province's assembly will pass laws.

"We are now in a situation where everyone renounces Milošević, even his party mates, but the results of his rule nobody renounces. The first thing that must be done is to consider where Vojvodina was before the violent coup of 1988. This is a nice try and we would accept it if it turns out to be the first of many," Čanak said of the proposed statute.

He called on some of the state jurisdiction, such as "partial executive and legislative powers, and judicial on the level of draft making" to be passed to Vojvodina.

"A new statute should give a chance to people living in Vojvodina to raise their voice against the looting," the LSV leader said.

He explained that he learned of the current proposal from the media, and found it strange that the provincial budget is slated to be at seven percent of that of Serbia, "when Vojvodina provides over 40 percent of the GDP".

Čanak also called for both the Horgoš-Požega highway concession and strategic energy agreement with Russia to be "annulled" and described both deals as "pillaging and crime of planetary proportions".

The LSV leader called for "discontinuity with the policies of Slobodan Milošević and Vojislav Koštunica", and for lustration to be carried out.

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