The National Assembly has 250 members, elected for four years. All of them are elected in a single constituency - the whole of Serbia - from closed lists, which means that a voter chooses a list and not an individual candidate. Elections are called by the President of the Republic, 90 days before the Assembly's term expires, and no fewer than 45 and no more than 60 days may pass between the call and the day of voting. The Assembly can also be dissolved before its term ends, by the President on a reasoned proposal of the Government, in which case elections follow the same 45 to 60 day window.
The right to vote and the right to stand for election are the same right, and belong to every adult citizen of Serbia over whom parental rights have not been extended and who has not been fully deprived of legal capacity. It is exercised through the Unified Voter Register, kept by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government: a citizen votes at the polling station to which their entry in the register is tied, and voters abroad vote at a diplomatic or consular mission only if they apply within the deadline. The register is closed by a decision of the ministry shortly before election day, and from that moment no entries or changes to it are possible. The voter register has never been audited.
A list reaches the ballot paper only if it is backed by at least 10,000 certified statements of voter support, or 5,000 for a list of a national minority. The Republic Electoral Commission checks the documentation while the Ministry compares the submitted voters against the register, and only signatures that pass both steps count. The amendments to the Law on parliamentary elections adopted in May 2026 removed the restriction under which a voter could support only one list, so the same voter may now sign for several. Every list must also meet the gender quota: at least 40 per cent of the candidates must be of the less represented gender, and within each block of five places on the list there must be three candidates of one gender and two of the other. Proclaimed candidate lists are published by the Commission as they are submitted.
Voting and counting are carried out by polling boards, not by a central authority. Polling stations are open from 07:00 to 20:00, and each is run by a board made up of members appointed in a permanent composition and members nominated by the list submitters. The board counts the ballots at the polling station itself as soon as voting closes and enters the result in a protocol, which is the basic document of the whole count. The obligation for board members to hold a certificate of completed training, introduced in 2026, applies only from January 2028. The Republic Electoral Commission establishes and publishes the overall report on the results within 96 hours of receiving all the aggregate reports.
Seats are then distributed among the lists that have won at least three per cent of the votes of the voters who voted. Lists of national minorities do not have to cross the threshold at all: their quotients are increased by 35 per cent when seats are allocated. The distribution itself is made by the d'Hondt method, or the system of the highest quotient - each list's vote total is divided in turn by one, two, three and so on, and the 250 highest quotients obtained become the 250 seats. This is why the value of a vote depends not only on how many votes a list wins but also on who else crosses the threshold. How votes become seats converts any result into seats.
Disputes over electoral rights are resolved in two steps, both of them short. An objection is lodged with the Republic Electoral Commission, and an appeal against its decision is decided by the Administrative Court; the deadlines are counted in hours and days rather than weeks, and they run from the publication of the decision being challenged. After the results become final, the first session of the new Assembly is convened no later than 30 days from the day the final results are proclaimed, and the term of an MP begins with the confirmation of the mandate at that session, not on election day.
Other elections follow the same logic, with different numbers. The President of the Republic is elected for five years by an absolute majority of the voters who voted, with 10,000 signatures required for a candidacy and a second round between the two leading candidates within 15 days if no one wins in the first; no one may be elected president more than twice. The Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina has 120 deputies elected for four years, entirely under a proportional system since the 2016 provincial elections, the mixed system in which half the deputies were elected in single-member districts having been abolished. Councillors in municipalities and cities are also elected for four years under a proportional system, with the same three per cent threshold and the same exemption for minority lists, while the number of signatures required for a list depends on the size of the local self-government unit. Mayors are not elected directly: the assembly elects the mayor from among the councillors, by secret ballot, by a majority of the total number of councillors.
These are the rules. Whether they are applied is a separate question, and it is the one CRTA's observation work has been addressed to for years - from the accuracy of the register and the conditions under which signatures are collected, to the composition of polling boards and the resolution of complaints. CRTA documents how each of these stages holds in practice, and publishes its findings in the reports of its election observation mission.
The right to vote and the right to stand for election are the same right, and belong to every adult citizen of Serbia over whom parental rights have not been extended and who has not been fully deprived of legal capacity. It is exercised through the Unified Voter Register, kept by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government: a citizen votes at the polling station to which their entry in the register is tied, and voters abroad vote at a diplomatic or consular mission only if they apply within the deadline. The register is closed by a decision of the ministry shortly before election day, and from that moment no entries or changes to it are possible. The voter register has never been audited.
A list reaches the ballot paper only if it is backed by at least 10,000 certified statements of voter support, or 5,000 for a list of a national minority. The Republic Electoral Commission checks the documentation while the Ministry compares the submitted voters against the register, and only signatures that pass both steps count. The amendments to the Law on parliamentary elections adopted in May 2026 removed the restriction under which a voter could support only one list, so the same voter may now sign for several. Every list must also meet the gender quota: at least 40 per cent of the candidates must be of the less represented gender, and within each block of five places on the list there must be three candidates of one gender and two of the other. Proclaimed candidate lists are published by the Commission as they are submitted.
Voting and counting are carried out by polling boards, not by a central authority. Polling stations are open from 07:00 to 20:00, and each is run by a board made up of members appointed in a permanent composition and members nominated by the list submitters. The board counts the ballots at the polling station itself as soon as voting closes and enters the result in a protocol, which is the basic document of the whole count. The obligation for board members to hold a certificate of completed training, introduced in 2026, applies only from January 2028. The Republic Electoral Commission establishes and publishes the overall report on the results within 96 hours of receiving all the aggregate reports.
Seats are then distributed among the lists that have won at least three per cent of the votes of the voters who voted. Lists of national minorities do not have to cross the threshold at all: their quotients are increased by 35 per cent when seats are allocated. The distribution itself is made by the d'Hondt method, or the system of the highest quotient - each list's vote total is divided in turn by one, two, three and so on, and the 250 highest quotients obtained become the 250 seats. This is why the value of a vote depends not only on how many votes a list wins but also on who else crosses the threshold. How votes become seats converts any result into seats.
Lists of national minorities do not have to cross the threshold at all: their quotients are increased by 35 per cent when seats are allocated.
Disputes over electoral rights are resolved in two steps, both of them short. An objection is lodged with the Republic Electoral Commission, and an appeal against its decision is decided by the Administrative Court; the deadlines are counted in hours and days rather than weeks, and they run from the publication of the decision being challenged. After the results become final, the first session of the new Assembly is convened no later than 30 days from the day the final results are proclaimed, and the term of an MP begins with the confirmation of the mandate at that session, not on election day.
Other elections follow the same logic, with different numbers. The President of the Republic is elected for five years by an absolute majority of the voters who voted, with 10,000 signatures required for a candidacy and a second round between the two leading candidates within 15 days if no one wins in the first; no one may be elected president more than twice. The Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina has 120 deputies elected for four years, entirely under a proportional system since the 2016 provincial elections, the mixed system in which half the deputies were elected in single-member districts having been abolished. Councillors in municipalities and cities are also elected for four years under a proportional system, with the same three per cent threshold and the same exemption for minority lists, while the number of signatures required for a list depends on the size of the local self-government unit. Mayors are not elected directly: the assembly elects the mayor from among the councillors, by secret ballot, by a majority of the total number of councillors.
These are the rules. Whether they are applied is a separate question, and it is the one CRTA's observation work has been addressed to for years - from the accuracy of the register and the conditions under which signatures are collected, to the composition of polling boards and the resolution of complaints. CRTA documents how each of these stages holds in practice, and publishes its findings in the reports of its election observation mission.
