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The present situation

Parliament voted on 31 August on a budget rebalance in what ruling-majority MPs had signalled could be the final session of this convocation before elections are called and the Assembly is dissolved. Alongside the rebalance, MPs voted on several accompanying financial laws, among them a law on mitigating the consequences of the energy crisis and rising living costs, which provides one-off financial support and a one-off cash allowance for certain categories of citizens. President Vučić has pointed to 18 or 25 October as possible election dates - the first would have to be called by 3 September, the second by 10 September.

In August, CRTA obtained evidence, including an audio recording, of a Serbian Progressive Party call centre contacting citizens with dual citizenship in Republika Srpska, offering to scan their identity documents and register them to vote from abroad at polling stations to be opened in Banja Luka. Under Serbian law, registration to vote from abroad is possible only after elections have been called, and only in person. The material raises questions about how a political party is able to establish who holds Serbian citizenship and to collect personal data, about a possible scheme to register citizens to vote from abroad outside official procedures, and about the role of the consular service in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

September

The National Assembly amended the Law on Prevention of Corruption (Official Gazette No. 80/2026), in force from 1 September 2026. The amendments introduce Agency monitoring of officials throughout the campaign, with mandatory monitoring of the President and members of the Government, differentiated sanctions, and clearer procedural rules. CRTA sees progress on some points long raised by ODIHR, but warns that the definition of a public official and the asset-declaration rules remain weak, and that the law was adopted under urgent procedure, without a public debate.

The SHARE Foundation published forensic findings confirming that at least 14 people in Serbia had been targeted with commercial spyware since the beginning of 2026: members of the student movement, opposition activists, one member of parliament and one local councillor. Analysis carried out with the Citizen Lab and the Amnesty International Security Lab identified Pegasus, delivered through a zero-click exploit, and a new version of the domestic NoviSpy. The MP among the targets, Radomir Lazović, said the server infrastructure led to the BIA. No state body responded to the findings.

On 1 September 2026, at its third constitutive session, the REM Council again failed to elect a president. As at the two July sessions, the members split into two blocs of four - candidates backed by the governing parties, and independents - and the two leading candidates, Dubravka Valić Nedeljković and Miloš Garić, each won four votes, short of the two-thirds majority (six of nine) the law requires. Members accused each other of obstruction; the chair, who continues to preside as the oldest member, said negotiations were ongoing and likened the deadlock to comparable stand-offs abroad that lasted from five months to five years. Representatives of the EU Delegation and the OSCE attended.

Key Issue

In numbers

Rotating selection of numerical data drawn from CRTA+ monitoring. Quantitative indicators can often reveal patterns, scale, and change more clearly than narrative descriptions alone, helping to illustrate how political and institutional developments unfold over time. The figures shown here reflect different aspects of CRTA+ monitoring and are updated as new data becomes available.

411

live TV addresses of President Vučić in 2025

19%

of polling stations in Zaječar had serious irregularities, June 2025 elections

42%

of citizens favour aligning with the EU vs 30% with Russia (CRTA, June 2026)