'Beli' Finds Way to Run in Serbian Capital Elections

Spoof politician Luka Maksimovic will be able to compete in the Belgrade local elections on March 4 after all - after his group got round a legal problem by deciding that one of its members will change his name to Maksimovic's previous alias, "Ljubisa Preletacevic 'Beli'".

This came after a court ruled in favour of the country's electoral commission in rejecting the election list he had submitted.

The commission said civic groups running in elections cannot run under personal names, unless the name is that of the holder of the list. It said that no one on the list was actually called "Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli".

However, although the name of Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli was a spoof, for Maksimovic, it was very important in order to be recognised by the voters.

On Thursday, the public heard that the city electoral commission had now received an ID with the name "Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli" - with approval of the person to use this name to head Maksimovic's election list.

"A little trick from the hat," Maksimovic wrote on Twitter on Thursday, together with an ID indeed named "Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli".

It is still not clear whose ID it is.

Maksimovic adopted the fake alias of "Ljubisa Preletacevic - Beli" as a deliberate caricature of the very worst type of cheesy, populist Serbian politician.

He came complete with fake university diploma, unaccounted-for wealth, vulgar clothes, and a gift for making empty, populist promises.

After the local elections held in April 2016, the spoof group unexpectedly came second in Mladenovac, one of 17 municipalities in the Belgrade City Assembly.

Maksimovic then ran for the Serbian presidency last year, and won 9.4 per cent of the vote.

In January,...