SR

Parliamentary elections 2026

Snap parliamentary elections were called on 9 September 2026, a day after the National Assembly was dissolved, and will be held on 25 October. The campaign had been running for months before that, and CRTA's Election Observation Mission has been documenting it since March. This page brings together what the mission has recorded: the conditions the campaign is taking place in, the contestants, the institutions administering the vote, the statutory deadlines, and the practical facts of how an election in Serbia is run. CRTA documents every stage of the process and publishes its findings in full.
Candidate lists for the elections
September

The Republic Electoral Commission proclaimed the list RUSKA STRANKA - SRBIJA U BRIKSU - SLOBODAN NIKOLIĆ, filed by the Russian Party with 25 candidates for the 250 seats in the National Assembly, and granted it the status of a national minority list. That status lowers the signature threshold from 10,000 to 5,000 and exempts a list from the three per cent electoral threshold; this one was accepted with 5,101 valid signatures. At the same session the Commission proclaimed a second minority list, Usame Zukorlić (SPP) Pokret za ujedinjenje, filed by the Party of Justice and Reconciliation with 181 candidates.
See all candidates

ODIHR opened its election observation mission for Serbia's early parliamentary elections in Belgrade, under Head of Mission Eoghan Murphy. The mission has a core team of 14 international experts, and 30 long-term observers from 24 OSCE participating States deploy across the country on 25 September, one month before election day. ODIHR has requested 300 short-term observers for the vote itself. An interim report is due about two weeks before election day, and preliminary findings the day after.
Read more

The Student List, filed with 250 candidates by the citizens' group Studentska lista - Studenti pobeđuju, was proclaimed for the 25 October elections. It delivered 84,641 statements of voter support; the voter list filed with them held 69,947 names and the count starts from the lower figure, so 69,099 signatures were accepted as legally valid - second only to the 209,130 of the Serbian Progressive Party. At the same session the Republic Electoral Commission proclaimed two national minority lists: RASIM LJAJIĆ - Ljudski (SDP - CDP) and the list of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.
See more details
Latest report
Campaigning without the paperwork
September 2026
The mission's findings from March to September 2026, on the conditions the official campaign starts from.
Read the report
How CRTA observes an election
2,200
observers on election day
Long-term observation across Serbia, and a nationally representative sample of 500 polling stations on election day.
How the mission works
Elections called on 9 September
25
October
Election day
See all deadlines

What is happening

CRTA's Election Observation Mission has been observing the process since March 2026, before the elections were called. Its observation covers the use of public funds and public office in the campaign, media coverage, the voter register, and the conduct of the institutions with a role in the process. The findings set out below are drawn from the mission's published reports and from its long-term observation of five election cycles since 2023.

Public resources

18%

of officials' activities

More than 1,200 activities of senior state officials were recorded between May and August. In 18 per cent of them observers found elements of the misuse of public office or public resources.

Read more →

Clientelism

1 in 7

activities of the ruling party

Every seventh recorded activity of the ruling party carried elements of clientelism, from parcels and household appliances to other material benefits handed to citizens.

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Budget payments

~€1bn

in one-off payments

Two announced measures will pay out close to a billion euros, double each comparable package before the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, and fall inside this campaign.

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Voter data

1,000+

people in a single case

The mission documented serious indications that personal data of citizens holding Bosnian and Serbian citizenship were collected unlawfully, to register them to vote abroad before elections were called.

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Media

1,300+

manipulative headlines

Recorded since the start of the year in the opening segments of main TV news programmes and on newspaper front pages alone. Almost half discredit political opponents.

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Surveillance

14

phones infected

Forensic examinations confirmed that since early 2026 the phones of at least 14 members of the Student Movement and of the Green-Left Front were infected with Pegasus spyware.

Read more →

Who

Electoral lists are submitted to the Republic Electoral Commission no later than 4 October, and the Commission decides on each list within 48 hours of its submission. The Commission also appoints the polling boards, accredits observers, decides on complaints and declares the results. Media coverage of the campaign falls under the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media, and the accuracy of the voter register under a commission established by the 2025 law. The section below sets out the contestants and what the mission has recorded about each of these bodies.

Contestants

Who is running

Lists are submitted with 10,000 verified voter signatures and confirmed by the Republic Electoral Commission as they arrive. Under the rules adopted in 2026 one voter may back several lists, which opens space for the tactical multiplication of lists.

See the lists →

 

 

Deadline 4 October 2026
Not functioning
Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media
Without decisions for 22 months. Its Council can neither elect a president nor act, so the campaign enters a media space without a regulator.
Read more on REM developments and irregularities
Without its own staff
Republic Electoral Commission
Confirms lists, appoints polling boards and declares results, but has no secretariat of its own and borrows one from the National Assembly. Mandatory training of polling board members applies only from 2028.
Read about composition and mandate of REC
No access to the data
Commission for the audit of the voter register
Established under the 2025 law, still without access to the source records. Its legal deadline falls three days after the vote.
Latest assessment of UVR audit process

When

Calling the elections on 9 September set the statutory deadlines running. Fifty-four of them fall on a date that can be calculated in advance. The remainder run from an event - 48 hours from the submission of a list, three days from a decision taking effect - and can be determined only once that event occurs. The deadlines govern candidacy, entry in the voter register, campaign silence and the submission of complaints. The key dates are set out below; the election calendar calculates all of them.

Election calendar

The dates that decide what can still be done

Fifty-four deadlines fall on a date that can be calculated in advance. The rest run from an event - 48 hours from the submission of a list, three days from a decision taking effect - so they can only be worked out once that event happens. The calculator does both.

9 September
Elections called. The National Assembly was dissolved the day before, and all statutory deadlines began to run.
4 October
Last day to submit candidate lists to the Republic Electoral Commission.
9 October
The voter register is closed and the total number of voters is determined. Applications to vote abroad closed on 3 October.
23 October
Campaign silence begins at midnight and lasts until the polls close at 20:00 on election day.
25 October
Election day. Polls are open from 07:00 to 20:00.
28 October
Legal deadline for the audit of the voter register - three days after the vote.

Which deadlines concern you?

Voters Voters abroad Electoral lists Observers Election administration State bodies All deadlines

How

Members of the National Assembly are elected under a proportional system, in a single nationwide constituency, from closed lists. Two hundred and fifty seats are distributed by the d'Hondt method among the lists that win at least three per cent of valid votes; lists of national minorities are exempt from the threshold and enter under a natural quota. The section below sets out the procedure in the order in which it takes place: entry in the voter register, voting and counting on election day, and the allocation of seats after the polls close.

Before the vote

Getting onto the register

You vote where you are entered in the Unified Voter Register. Citizens abroad had to apply to vote at a diplomatic or consular mission by 3 October; for everyone else the register closed on 9 October, when the total number of voters was determined. The register has never been audited, and the commission set up to do it has a legal deadline that falls three days after the vote.

The voter register →

On election day

Who counts the ballots

Polling stations are open from 07:00 to 20:00. Each is run by a polling board made up of appointed and party-nominated members, which counts the ballots on the spot as soon as the polls close and records the result in a protocol. The obligation for board members to be trained and certified applies only from January 2028, so it will not apply to these elections.

Republic Electoral Commission →

After the polls close

How votes become seats

The Republic Electoral Commission publishes the results within 96 hours of the polls closing. Seats are then distributed among the lists that pass the three per cent threshold, in proportion to the votes they win, by the d’Hondt method. The calculator converts any result into seats, and shows how much a vote is worth depending on who else passes.

How votes become seats →

Interactive tool

How votes become seats

Two hundred and fifty seats are divided among the lists that clear the three per cent threshold, by the d’Hondt method. Move the slider to see what a share of the vote is worth. The calculator does the same for any number of lists, using real survey data.

Open the calculator →

125

List A

125

List B

Share of the vote for list A 50,0%

A simplified illustration with two lists and no national minority lists. A list below the three per cent threshold wins no seats.

Update
Signatures certified without the voter present – CRTA’s findings from the candidacy proc...
CRTA observers covered more than 170 signature collection points in over 60 municipalities, and documented unlawful conduct benefiting the governing list and obstruction facing the Student List and the opposition.
Read more
Update
The possible dates for presidential elections
One date is still open: the day of the presidential election. It is not a free choice. President Aleksandar Vučić has announced that he will submit his resignation on 27 September, and his mandate ends the day he does. From that moment the law closes the window at both ends - no sooner than 30 days after the election is called, and no later than three months after the mandate ends.
Read more
Update
ODIHR opens its election observation mission in Serbia, long-term observers deploy on 25 September
A core team of 14 experts is in Belgrade, 30 long-term observers deploy across the country on 25 September, and 300 short-term observers have been requested for election day.
Read more
Update
The d’Hondt method, step by step
In Serbia the gap between a list's share of the votes and its share of the seats comes mostly from the threshold, not from the method.
Read more
Update
Accreditation guide for international observers: applications close on 14 October
CRTA's Election Observation Mission has prepared a short guide for international observers and foreign state representatives, setting out required documents, rights and obligations, deadlines and where each category applies.
Read more
Update
Candidate lists for the 25 October parliamentary elections
The Republic Electoral Commission has begun proclaiming lists for the 25 October elections. This page tracks each one - its candidates, and the verification of the signatures behind it.
Read more
Update
Political context
More than 600 manipulative headlines discredited the government's critics between January and August, while a new actor emerged with the capacity to match the ruling coalition.
Read more
Update
Republic Electoral Commission – composition and mandate
The elections of 25 October 2026 will be administered by the Republic Electoral Commission (REC) - a body the law calls independent and autonomous, and which parliament composes on the nomination of its own parliamentary groups. Its design and competences have barely changed since it was last criticised by the Venice Commission and ODIHR in 2022.
Read more
Update
Government proposes dissolving parliament and calling early elections
The decision now rests with the President of the Republic. The Government's stated reason - significantly improved electoral conditions since 2023 - is not what CRTA's monitoring has found.
Read more
CRTA.Plus is part of CRTA’s work to document developments related to democracy, the rule of law, and accountability in Serbia.
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