DS

The opposition bloc made up of the DS and the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) is currently considering two candidates for mayor of Belgrade, Blic writes.

They are Rodoljub Sabic, who currently serves as commissioner for information of public importance and personal data protection, and Sreto Malinovic, a retired army general.

After Macedonia's main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM hinted that it will discuss at its October 2 party congress ways of combining all opposition forces into one united front against Gruevski's ruling VMRO DPMNE, several smaller parties have said they are interested in the idea of collaboration.

The third Belgrade Pride Parade, which took place under the slogan "Love changes the world", was held on Sunday with several hundred LGBT rights supporters, alongside Serbian politicians, participating in the march through the centre of the Serbian capital.

The group was protected by some 5,000 police officers who had the city centre in lockdown to ensure participants' safety.

Serbia's opposition Democratic Party, DS, has filed a draft law seeking termination of the agreement on cooperation between Belgrade and the United Arab Emirates, UAE, signed in February 2013, claiming it is unconstitutional and damages the public interest.

After April's general elections in Serbia, which the governing Progressive Party won handsomely, the embattled and weakened pro-European Democratic Party, DS, is entering internal elections that could lead to a new president and determine the party's course ahead of Serbia's presidential elections in 2017.

On Saturday's protest, several Serbian opposition parties across the political spectrum said that election were rigged and called citizens to vote freely on repeated elections on 15 polling stations scheduled for Wednesday, which can decide whether some parties will enter the parliament or not.

The right-wing Dveri-DSS coalition has accused Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, of pressuring the Election Commission, RIK, to declare that the coalition did not meet the threshold needed to enter parliament - and has warned of street protests.

Opposition and ruling party MPs clashed in Serbia's parliament on Tuesday about potential wrongdoings in the forthcoming parliamentary elections broadly scheduled for late April.

Zoran Zivkovic, president of the opposition New Party, said that his party, like most citizens in Serbia, feared electoral fraud.

Serbia's opposition Democratic Party, DS, says it is facing sustained harassment ahead of important test elections in the province of Vojvodina loosely set for April or May.

December saw the dramatic arrest of 80 people in an anti-corruption swoop, which included several members of the Democratic Party, Aleksandra Jerkov, the party spokesperson and an MP, noted.

The Novi Sad-based 021.rs website is reporting that hate graffiti have appeared in Novi Sad's streets targeting the leader of the DS party Bojan Pajtic.

Pajtic also heads the provincial government in Vojvodina.