Representatives of the authorities and the opposition met behind closed doors on Tuesday as part of preparations for a dialogue on elections conditions.

The meeting was organized at the Belgrade University School of Political Science (FPN) whose Dean Dragan Simic told N1 that the it came at the initiative of the Open Society Foundation. He said that the meeting opens the dialogue on election conditions. “It’s a good sign that we sat down together. That is a sign that there is an awareness and great need to talk and that is something,” he said.

An N1 reporter saw Internal Affairs Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) MPs Vladimir Orlic and Vladimir Djukanovic, Freedom and Justice Party leader (and Alliance for Serbia chair) Dragan Djilas, Democratic Party (DS) leader Zoran Lutovac and opposition MP Marinika Tepic enter the FNP building.

The meeting, which was opened by Dean Simic, was also attended by Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence chief Sonja Liht, Open Society Foundation official Milan Antonijevic (moderator of the round table) and Bojan Klacar from the CeSID election watchdog.

SNS MP Djukanovic accused the opposition of playing politics with the meeting which he claims was not in the form of negotiations. “We agreed to come to the gathering to talk about elections at the proposal of the Open Society Foundation with the rule set by the moderator that there should be no media. The gentlemen from the Alliance for Serbia deliberately invited N1 and broke the moderator’s rule. Miserable!,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

He added in a later tweet: “The gathering was intended to be a presentation by CeSID and CRTA on election law. No negotiations or any such nonsense. It’s obvious the Alliance for Serbia’s goal was to politicize the gathering and, despite the rulies of the moderator, they invited the media”.