Serbian elections on October 25: nearly three times more people registered from the diaspora, polling stations are scarce. A list of "blockaders" is circulating in Čačak

Serbia is holding early parliamentary elections on October 25, and the dispute over the fairness of the vote is shifting from programs to technicalities. According to AP, at least 100,000 voters from the diaspora have registered, nearly three times more than in 2023, yet the election commission approved only 93 polling stations abroad for them. Meanwhile, in Čačak, according to N1, a list with citizens' personal data divided into "blockaders" and "sure voters" is circulating, while the ODIHR mission is already in the country. ABC News (AP) ↗ N1 Serbia ↗ ODIHR ↗

Diaspora: more registered, fewer stations

Voters with foreign residence could register through diplomatic missions until October 3. N1 Serbia ↗ However, according to AP, the commission (RIK) tied voting to Serbian time from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., meaning that in Chicago voting would take place from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and in Australia overnight. RIK member Sofija Mandić warned that this could shut the door on more than 26,000 people, and criticized the foreign ministry for selecting locations based on assumptions about how people would vote. Minister Marko Đurić denies any political motive and cites logistical, security, spatial, and personnel criteria. ABC News (AP) ↗

Of the 93 polling stations, according to AP, 28 are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while nearly 1,300 people registered from Vancouver, Canada, would have to travel approximately 3,500 kilometers to Toronto or Ottawa. The weekly Vreme, according to Nova, found that the ministry did not even request additional polling stations from Germany, which the German embassy also confirmed. Nova ↗ The Študentská listina claims this affects about 10,000 voters from 12 countries, and it was to file a complaint on the evening of October 7. Nova ↗ A RIK working group is addressing the expansion of the list on October 7; commission member Ivan Šebek points out that Thessaloniki, Sofia, Herceg Novi, and Istanbul were left out. Danas ↗

Čačak and the voter register

The "Provera blokadera – Čačak" list, according to Danas, contains names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, and polling stations of people classified as "sure voters," party members, and "blockaders." Danas ↗ Independent councilor Pavle Jelesijević told N1 that it leaked from the SNS and that the party had unrestricted access to the register. We did not find statements from the SNS or the police in these texts. N1 Serbia ↗

The background is broader: according to Radio Free Europe, more than half a million voters in the register have an address without a street and house number, and the Ministry of Public Administration referred to the Ministry of Interior. Danas ↗ In its July report, ODIHR noted interlocutors' concerns about "parallel lists" of voters and their monitoring, and stated that the audit commission was given full access to the data only on July 6. ODIHR ↗

ODIHR and the Slovak angle

The mission is led by Eoghan Murphy: 14 experts, 30 long-term observers, and up to 300 short-term observers; preliminary findings will be presented on October 26. ODIHR ↗ Slovak media wrote mainly about the start of the campaign, as Vučić, who resigned from the presidential post on September 27, aspires to become prime minister. Fico, who was supposed to speak at his rally on October 3, did not travel due to illness. TASR ↗ Only aktuality.sk covered the technical side, according to which the commission left out Bratislava, even though more than 500 Serbs had registered there through the embassy. Aktuality.sk ↗

Limits of this view

We rely mainly on N1, Nova, and Danas, i.e., outlets critical of the government, and on one agency report. We did not find a statement from the ruling party regarding the Čačak list. Meanwhile, the tabloid Kurir is already running headlines claiming that "blockaders are preparing chaos on October 25." Kurir ↗

The origin of the list and the number of "phantom voters" have not been proven, and the number of diaspora registrations varies (AP: at least 100,000, Danas: more than 110,000). We did not read RIK's decisions in the original. Danas ↗

*Illustrative photo: the National Assembly building in Belgrade. Author: kallerna, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.*

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