In April 2010, the Serbian Constitutional Court struck down two articles of the Law on Local Elections as unconstitutional. The articles empowered submitters of electoral lists, usually political parties, to assign mandates of local councillors to any candidate from the list, not having to follow the order specified in the list. The second article institutionalised the practice of submitting the so-called blank resignation letters, which enable political parties to discipline their local councillors and dispose of their mandates at any time they deem necessary. The Court found that these articles were contrary to basic constitutional principles of popular sovereignty, free and direct elections and the right to local self-government. Besides its immediate effect on the level of local governments, the decision raises some interesting issues in relation to almost identical provisions in legislation regulating central level elections and the identical practice of political party control over mandates of members of the national parliament. So far, these issues have not been addressed by the Constitutional Court.
