Elections 2026 - crta.plus

What is on this page

What is happening →

What the observation mission has recorded since March 2026

Who →

The contestants, and the institutions administering the vote

How to vote →

Where and when you vote, including from abroad and from Kosovo

When →

The statutory deadlines and the election calendar

How →

The electoral system, from the voter register to the allocation of seats

CRTA EOM report

First interim report

The first half of the campaign narrowed the scope for voting, for campaigning on equal terms and for observing the elections - without precedent among the processes CRTA has followed.

Read the interim report →

International observers

ODIHR’s interim report

Unaddressed recommendations from earlier elections, concerns over the voter register, and pressure on domestic observers.

Read ODIHR’s report →

Election day

25 October 2026

See all deadlines →

What is happening

CRTA's Election Observation Mission has been observing this process since March 2026, before the elections were called. Its first interim report, published on 11 October, covers the first half of the official campaign; the findings below are drawn from it. The mission's observation covers the use of public office and public resources, media coverage, the voter register, and the conduct of the institutions administering the vote.

The campaign

+70%

rise in recorded misuse

Cases of the misuse of public office and public resources rose by seventy per cent from the first week of the campaign to the third.

Media

85%

of RTS time to the authorities

A pronounced imbalance in the presence of the authorities and the opposition on the public broadcaster, on national and cable channels and on news portals.

Candidate registration

2 of 11

lists certified before notaries

By the time of the report, only two of eleven lists had had most of their support signatures certified before a notary, which left the integrity of candidate registration in doubt.

Voting abroad

2.7×

the voters, 15% more polling stations

Registration abroad reached a record, but the network did not follow. The Republic Electoral Commission decided on polling stations without the figures for registrations by city, which the foreign ministry never supplied.

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.

Surveillance

phones infected

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

Earlier in this cycle

Campaigning without the paperwork

The mission’s findings from March to September 2026, on the conditions the official campaign started from.

Read the report →

Who

Nineteen electoral lists were proclaimed by the deadline of 4 October, and eighteen stand on the ballot after one was withdrawn. The Republic Electoral Commission 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

Nineteen lists were proclaimed by the deadline of 4 October and one was withdrawn. Nine of the eighteen on the ballot are national minority lists, which enter parliament under a natural quota rather than the three per cent threshold.

See the lists →

lists on the ballot

417,189 verified signatures behind them

Interactive tool

Who has held power

Fourteen prime ministers since 1991, from four parties. One of those parties has held the office without a break since April 2014. The timeline sets out every significant party since the first multi-party election: when it was founded, what it split from, and whether it governed or opposed.

Open the timeline →

Macut

Prime Minister, since April 2025

SNS

Move through the years 2026

Heads of government only. The full timeline also covers presidents and all thirty-two parties, with their splits and mergers.

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.

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

How to vote

The register is closed and the polling stations are set. This is where and when the vote happens, including for the voters who are not voting in Serbia.

Where you vote

8,392

polling stations

Every voter is tied to one, fixed when the register was closed on 9 October: 8,270 ordinary stations, 93 abroad and 29 in prisons. You can look yours up by street and house number.

Find your polling station →

Polling hours

07-20

on Sunday 25 October

Polling stations open at seven in the morning and close at eight in the evening. Stations abroad keep the same hours by Belgrade time, which is a change from earlier elections.

The election calendar →

From abroad

102,147

voters in 37 countries

Two and a half times as many as in 2023, when 39,270 voters registered abroad. Thirteen polling stations, serving 10,851 of them, will vote partly at night.

From Kosovo

host municipalities

Voters registered in Kosovo vote in Vranje, Raška, Kuršumlija or Tutin, assigned by district. The decision says nothing about how they are to be informed or how they are to get there.

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

What is still ahead, from the start of campaign silence to the outer limit of the presidential election. The deadlines that have already passed, and the ones that run from an event rather than from a date, are all in the calculator.

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.

8 November

Elections for 23 national minority councils, two weeks after the parliamentary vote. Twenty-one minorities vote directly; the Gorani and Russian communities elect through an electoral assembly. Who votes and how →

27 December

The last day on which the presidential election can be held. The window runs from 1 November, and the day of voting has to fall on a non-working day. The possible dates →

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

Each polling station 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. Mandator runs on the eighteen lists on this ballot: enter a turnout and a result, and it shows where the 250 seats fall.

Mandator - the seat calculator →

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. Mandator does the same for the eighteen lists on this ballot.

Open Mandator →

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.

Parliamentary elections 2026

What is happening

Who

How to vote

When

How

First interim report on long-term observation

Voting abroad: 102,147 voters, 93 polling stations and voting hours set by Belgrade time

Voter register closed: 6,450,523 voters at 8,392 polling stations

ODIHR interim report: unaddressed recommendations, voter register concerns and pressure on observers

CRTA asks Ministry of Interior for meeting on safety of election observers

Higher Court bars Informer from republishing claims that CRTA is a criminal organization

SHARE Foundation report identifies techniques used to discredit CRTA

Decisions of the Anti-Corruption Agency in the election campaign

Voters with residence in Kosovo will vote in Vranje, Raška, Kuršumlija and Tutin

Parliamentary elections 2026

The CRTA Election Observation Mission published its first interim report on the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, finding the scope for voting, campaigning and observation narrowed without precedent.

Voting abroad: 102,147 voters assigned to 93 polling stations abroad; 13 stations will vote partly at night.

The voter register for the 25 October elections was closed with 6,450,523 voters, before its audit was completed.

What is happening

Who

How to vote

When

How

First interim report on long-term observation

Voting abroad: 102,147 voters, 93 polling stations and voting hours set by Belgrade time

Voter register closed: 6,450,523 voters at 8,392 polling stations

ODIHR interim report: unaddressed recommendations, voter register concerns and pressure on observers

CRTA asks Ministry of Interior for meeting on safety of election observers

Higher Court bars Informer from republishing claims that CRTA is a criminal organization

SHARE Foundation report identifies techniques used to discredit CRTA

Decisions of the Anti-Corruption Agency in the election campaign

Voters with residence in Kosovo will vote in Vranje, Raška, Kuršumlija and Tutin