The citizens and the political representatives have shown progress on their path to building a fully-fledged democracy, but additional efforts are needed to improve the transparency of the election process and the functioning of the media, the OSCE and PACE observers of Serbia's elections said in a statement Monday.

At a joint press conference, Matteo Mecacci, leader of the OSCE short-term observer mission to the May 6 parliamentary and early presidential elections in Serbia, said that the elections atmosphere had been peaceful and everyone involved in the electoral process had agreed no irregularities had been observed and had accepted the results as valid.

I congratulate the Serbian people on the achievement, Mecacci said, adding that the campaign was an open and competitive one. “These were open and competitive elections, thanks to the legal reforms implemented over the last few years. I am glad to say that the citizens of Serbia are moving forward on their path to building a fully-fledged democracy to face the challenges ahead,” Mecacci said.

The large number of candidates left the citizens with many options to choose between, and the media helped greatly in that regard.

He made a point, however, there was still the problem regarding transparency of media ownership.

Jean-Charles Gardetto, the head of the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said that Sunday's elections had seen positive changes, particularly due to the introducing a single unified voter register, having women make up a third of the parliament composition, abolishing the practice of blank resignations, and improving the country's legal framework as a whole.

We are pleased to say that “the elections in Serbia addressed most of the Council of Europe standards for democratic elections parliamentary and presidential elections have met most of the Council of Europe standards,” said Gardetto. “The citizens made their choice freely among a large number of parties and presidential candidates. Nevertheless, the media coverage could have been more balanced,” he said.

He said PACE welcomed “the efforts of the international community and those of Belgrade and Pristina which allowed the Serbian citizens of Kosovo to exercise their right to vote.”

Corien Jonker, the head of the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission, said that the elections had taken place in a calm environment, but that greater transparency is vital and citizens should insist upon greater openness from institutions involved in election administration.