Bojan Kostres was quoted by the Beta news agency as saying on Wednesday that the reason for the boycott was the fact that a broad public discussion has not been held on the topic and that the new constitution stipulates unsatisfactory definitions of Vojvodina's status.
Kostres said that the decision on the boycott was made after consultations with representatives of political parties, ethnic minorities and prominent constitution law experts.
Political parties, nongovernmental organisations and political analysts in Vojvodina are becoming increasingly vocal in their criticism of what the future Serbian constitution may offer regarding the autonomy of this northern province and rights of minorities living there.
Representatives of ethnic minorities, primarily local Hungarians and Croats, are now sceptical about the draft constitution, after they seemed satisfied with the document when it was recently approved by the Serbian National Assembly. The new constitution must be supported by two-thirds of votes at a referendum to be officially promulgated.
The chairman of the Croatian National Council, Josip Pekanovic, said last Thursday that the new constitution had serious shortcomings and that a decision on whether Croats should go to the referendum or boycott it would be made at a session of this council, which is the umbrella organisation of Croat minority associations.
The leader of the strongest party of ethnic Hungarians, Jozsef Kasza, withdrew his previous suggestion to Hungarians to go to the referendum, explaining that his party would consider the matter.
He went on to say that he had expressed his support to the constitution after Serbian government officials promised him that the document would be in the interest of ethnic Hungarians. However, he added, the version of the text approved by the parliament differed from what was promised.
Cedomir Jovanovic's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Natasa Micic's Civil Alliance of Serbia (GSS), Zarko Korac's Social Democratic Union and Nenad Canak's League of Vojvodina Social Democrats (LSV) last Sunday called on Serbian citizens to boycott the referendum on Serbia's new constitution.