Chapters of the report
1 Political context Processes that began before the campaign accelerated: violence, polarisation and the equating of the state with the party. almost 1,500 media items casting the authorities’ critics as enemies preparing violence 2 Conduct of the elections: electoral institutions and actors The REC met its deadlines, but the certification of support signatures and the oversight of the campaign raised doubts about the integrity of candidate registration. only two of eleven lists certified most of their signatures before notaries 3 Voter register After years of decline the number of voters is rising again, most of all in Belgrade, while the audit of the register has not been given basic data. of a net increase of 7,000 voters, 6,400 are in Belgrade 4 Polling stations The number of polling stations in the country is the same as in 2023, while the network abroad does not match the record number of registered voters. some 22,000 who registered abroad left out of the decision on polling stations 5 Position of observers The campaign against independent citizen observers continued after the elections were called, including an attack on an observer of the Agency. almost 1,000 citizens contacted the observation mission 6 The course of the election campaign The core of the report: field findings on the use of public office and public resources, pressure, discrediting and violence. a 70 per cent increase in cases of misuse from the first to the third week 7 Media and information A pronounced imbalance in the presence of the authorities and the opposition on the public service broadcaster, national and cable channels and news portals. 85 per cent of the time to the authorities on RTS 8 Observation methodology How the report was made: the scope of observation, the standards it rests on and how the data were processed. 2,863 reports from 45 long-term observersSummary
A narrowing of the space for exercising the right to vote, for free and equal campaigning by electoral contestants, and for citizens’ free participation in the elections - as voters, candidates and observers - marked the first half of the campaign for the early parliamentary elections.
With the foundations of free and fair elections, including independent election observation, being systematically undermined, this campaign is unlike any electoral process CRTA Election Observation Mission has observed before.
With the foundations of free and fair elections, including independent election observation, being systematically undermined, this campaign is unlike any electoral process CRTA Election Observation Mission has observed before.
Voting from abroad
Citizens of Serbia living outside the country registered to vote abroad in record numbers. Although voter registration tripled compared with the 2023 elections, the number of polling stations has not kept pace with the number of voters registered abroad. In some countries where voting previously took place and where voters have registered again, not a single polling station will be opened. On the other hand, as many as nine new polling stations will be opened in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the number of registered voters does not justify this at the present moment. Currently, the possibility of exercising the right to vote is drastically restricted for around 22,000 voters.
Currently, the possibility of exercising the right to vote is drastically restricted for around 22,000 voters.
Final information on the number of voters covered by the state's decision not to open polling stations in some countries will, however, be known only once the number of voters is closed on 9 October. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given no reasons for the decision not to open polling stations in all the countries in which voters had registered. The criteria on which that decision was taken are not available to the public, nor is information on the number of registered voters by country. The restriction on the exercise of the right to vote for voters in the diaspora is also reflected in the decision of the Republic Electoral Commission (REC) that voting in other time zones be conducted according to Belgrade time. This departs from the practice the REC applied consistently in all elections since 2016, and a large number of voters in the diaspora will be forced to vote at night or in the early hours of the morning, which directly undermines the principle of equal suffrage. This decision was taken on the basis of a precedent - an entirely new and incorrect interpretation of Article 91 of the Law on the Election of MPs - and its reasoning has no basis either in domestic law or in international standards.Pressure, violence and intimidation
The freedom to conduct a campaign has been jeopardised for opposition actors, who have been subjected to unlawful wiretapping. In the first half of the campaign, material obtained through wiretapping was broadcast on Informer TV on at least ten occasions. Informer TV is, moreover, not covered by the pre-election monitoring, as a result of a discretionary decision of the media regulator. Given that, immediately before the elections were called, the phones of at least 14 individuals - activists of the Student List and an opposition MP - were found to have been infected with Pegasus, the most aggressive spyware in the world, the recordings that are being made and published during the campaign raise the suspicion that widespread wiretapping is under way. The institutions have not commented on a single one of these cases.
The actions of the police, specifically of the Economic Crime Department of the Criminal Police Directorate, directed at the campaign logistics of the Student List are also a matter of concern, because they take the form of intimidation and give grounds for suspecting that they are politically motivated. In the first case, inspectors appeared without a warrant outside a warehouse holding campaign material; in the second, two weeks later, they stopped a lorry transporting that material.
The campaign has also been marked by violence and the intimidation of citizens. CRTA Election Observation Mission recorded 49 incidents across the country - an average of two a day during the first three weeks of the campaign. The incidents have been intensifying as the campaign goes on. In little more than 24 hours, as many as four physical clashes took place in different parts of the country, and in one of them activists of the “United Serbia - Aleksandar Vučić” list attacked an observer of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (ACAS) who was on assignment collecting information about the list's activities.
The violent incidents have been accompanied by a campaign of intimidation. The most senior state officials and the outlets close to the authorities persistently spread untruths and invented scenarios according to which the authorities' political opponents are preparing chaos and violence before, during and after election day. In some cases, foreign intelligence services are allegedly involved in the preparation of such scenarios. Messages of this kind intimidate citizens and discourage them from taking part in the elections, as voters, candidates or observers, thereby undermining the freedom of their participation in the electoral process.
The most influential online outlets close to the authorities carried almost 1,500 items portraying the authorities' political opponents, and independent election observers as well, as violent, including explicit predictions that violence will occur on election day - including claims about a “bloody scenario” and about the preparation of “false flag” operations, that is, staged incidents for which responsibility would, it is claimed, be falsely attributed to the authorities. On average, the portals produced seven articles a day in which the activities of opposition and democratic actors were declared a “colour revolution”.
The actions of the police, specifically of the Economic Crime Department of the Criminal Police Directorate, directed at the campaign logistics of the Student List are also a matter of concern, because they take the form of intimidation and give grounds for suspecting that they are politically motivated. In the first case, inspectors appeared without a warrant outside a warehouse holding campaign material; in the second, two weeks later, they stopped a lorry transporting that material.
The campaign has also been marked by violence and the intimidation of citizens. CRTA Election Observation Mission recorded 49 incidents across the country - an average of two a day during the first three weeks of the campaign. The incidents have been intensifying as the campaign goes on. In little more than 24 hours, as many as four physical clashes took place in different parts of the country, and in one of them activists of the “United Serbia - Aleksandar Vučić” list attacked an observer of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (ACAS) who was on assignment collecting information about the list's activities.
The violent incidents have been accompanied by a campaign of intimidation. The most senior state officials and the outlets close to the authorities persistently spread untruths and invented scenarios according to which the authorities' political opponents are preparing chaos and violence before, during and after election day. In some cases, foreign intelligence services are allegedly involved in the preparation of such scenarios. Messages of this kind intimidate citizens and discourage them from taking part in the elections, as voters, candidates or observers, thereby undermining the freedom of their participation in the electoral process.
The most influential online outlets close to the authorities carried almost 1,500 items portraying the authorities' political opponents, and independent election observers as well, as violent, including explicit predictions that violence will occur on election day - including claims about a “bloody scenario” and about the preparation of “false flag” operations, that is, staged incidents for which responsibility would, it is claimed, be falsely attributed to the authorities. On average, the portals produced seven articles a day in which the activities of opposition and democratic actors were declared a “colour revolution”.
The position of observers
The discrediting of independent and impartial citizen election observation, and the incitement of intolerance towards it, is of particular concern. It should be recalled that Serbia committed itself to holding free and fair elections under the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, while by accepting paragraph 25 of the Istanbul Document it also undertook to enable election observation. The most senior state representatives and the outlets close to them, however, by carrying information allegedly originating from marginal social media accounts, are promoting narratives that CRTA Election Observation Mission is an instrument of a foreign service, that it is a political party in disguise, that it will withdraw on election day, that it stands behind the violence and that it is preparing to contest the elections. Addressing the public on the occasion of his resignation from the office of President of the Republic, Aleksandar Vučić called CRTA Election Observation Mission “the worst participant in the ‘colour revolution’”. In the days that followed came calls for CRTA's work to be banned on account of allegedly unconstitutional activity, and for the head of CRTA's observation mission and its members to be arrested.
Civic mobilisation
Against a background of narrowed space for the exercise of the right to vote and for free and equal participation in the elections, intensive civic mobilisation is under way, directed at voter turnout but also at engaging citizens as observers or election controllers. The turnout campaign led by the citizens' associations' turnout initiative “Svi izlazimo!” has begun. Citizens' assemblies across Serbia conducted campaigns to mobilise citizens to vote in the diaspora, as well as campaigns to educate and mobilise citizens to become involved in the control of the elections.
The campaign of the electoral lists
The mobilisation tactics of the “Aleksandar Vučić - United Serbia” list unfolded in the shadow of practices that merge the state and the political party, misuse public resources and public office and exert pressure on voters. Every third activity of the ruling list recorded in the field contained elements of various misuses of the law. The Student List demonstrated greater mobilisation capacity than the other opposition candidate lists - both during the collection of voter support signatures for candidate registration and in the activities that followed across the country.
Although a large number of parliamentary opposition parties are not taking part in the elections, the ballot paper will carry the same number of candidate lists as at the 2023 early parliamentary elections - 18 in total. Half of the candidate lists are minority lists. The integrity of candidate registration has been called into question by recorded cases of unlawful certification of signatures in municipalities. The lists of the authorities, the lists that support the ruling majority and the lists of questionable authenticity used municipal certifying officers for the majority of their support signatures. Suspicions of the forgery of signatures have been recurring since 2020, when the power to certify signatures was returned to municipal certifying officers, which undid the earlier implementation of an ODIHR recommendation. There are suspicions that several actors misused the privileged position of minority lists for candidate registration.
In the campaign, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has taken a public position that it is fighting against all the others and that all the others are fighting against it, even though some of the candidate lists have been its traditional partners for 16 years, such as Ivica Dačić's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) or Rasim Ljajić's Social Democratic Party (SDP). The Student List, on the other hand, emerged as the antithesis of the existing political elites and structures and takes no public position towards other opposition actors - its campaign is focused on criticism of the long-standing rule of the SNS and its partners. A large number of traditional political parties are nevertheless not taking part in the elections The People's Serbia coalition (NPS, NLS, EU) collected support signatures and submitted a candidate list, and after its confirmation withdrew it and gave its support to the Student List. but have instead given their support to the Student List The Democratic Party, the Green-Left Front, the Movement of Free Citizens, the People's Movement of Serbia, Novo lice Srbije, Ekološki ustanak, Kreni-promeni, the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, and others. Immediately before parliament was dissolved, 16 opposition MPs formed the parliamentary group “Poslanici uz studente - za kontrolu izbora” (the second largest parliamentary group in parliament), in order to increase the number of their members in the permanent composition of polling boards. . Two coalitions are also taking part among the opposition actors: European Serbia (SSP, SRCE, Solidarnost) and Authentic Right (DSS, Monarhisti) - which base their campaigns on their stance towards the European Union, the one as clear advocates and the other as clear opponents. The traditional parties of the largest national minorities in Serbia are also taking part in the elections: the Hungarian, Bosniak and Albanian ones. Two lists claim to represent the interests of the Russian minority, while at the same time being among the five candidate lists so far found to be of doubtful authenticity.
The first half of the campaign has shown an intention to blur the line between state and party in the elections, and to mislead voters in order to create an impermissible advantage for the authorities. In the third week of the campaign, CRTA's observers recorded 70 per cent more cases with elements of the misuse of public office and public resources across Serbia than in the first week. CRTA's observers are also recording, across Serbia, an intensification of the activities of public officials as the campaign goes on.
The President of the Republic resigned halfway through the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, after months of speculation that had sustained uncertainty about the timing of the presidential election. The ability to choose the moment of his resignation, and thereby to influence the electoral calendar and the overlap of the two campaigns, gives him an advantage in shaping the conditions of the electoral race.
Every third activity of the ruling list recorded in the field contained elements of various misuses of the law.
Although a large number of parliamentary opposition parties are not taking part in the elections, the ballot paper will carry the same number of candidate lists as at the 2023 early parliamentary elections - 18 in total. Half of the candidate lists are minority lists. The integrity of candidate registration has been called into question by recorded cases of unlawful certification of signatures in municipalities. The lists of the authorities, the lists that support the ruling majority and the lists of questionable authenticity used municipal certifying officers for the majority of their support signatures. Suspicions of the forgery of signatures have been recurring since 2020, when the power to certify signatures was returned to municipal certifying officers, which undid the earlier implementation of an ODIHR recommendation. There are suspicions that several actors misused the privileged position of minority lists for candidate registration.
In the campaign, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has taken a public position that it is fighting against all the others and that all the others are fighting against it, even though some of the candidate lists have been its traditional partners for 16 years, such as Ivica Dačić's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) or Rasim Ljajić's Social Democratic Party (SDP). The Student List, on the other hand, emerged as the antithesis of the existing political elites and structures and takes no public position towards other opposition actors - its campaign is focused on criticism of the long-standing rule of the SNS and its partners. A large number of traditional political parties are nevertheless not taking part in the elections The People's Serbia coalition (NPS, NLS, EU) collected support signatures and submitted a candidate list, and after its confirmation withdrew it and gave its support to the Student List. but have instead given their support to the Student List The Democratic Party, the Green-Left Front, the Movement of Free Citizens, the People's Movement of Serbia, Novo lice Srbije, Ekološki ustanak, Kreni-promeni, the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, and others. Immediately before parliament was dissolved, 16 opposition MPs formed the parliamentary group “Poslanici uz studente - za kontrolu izbora” (the second largest parliamentary group in parliament), in order to increase the number of their members in the permanent composition of polling boards. . Two coalitions are also taking part among the opposition actors: European Serbia (SSP, SRCE, Solidarnost) and Authentic Right (DSS, Monarhisti) - which base their campaigns on their stance towards the European Union, the one as clear advocates and the other as clear opponents. The traditional parties of the largest national minorities in Serbia are also taking part in the elections: the Hungarian, Bosniak and Albanian ones. Two lists claim to represent the interests of the Russian minority, while at the same time being among the five candidate lists so far found to be of doubtful authenticity.
The first half of the campaign has shown an intention to blur the line between state and party in the elections, and to mislead voters in order to create an impermissible advantage for the authorities. In the third week of the campaign, CRTA's observers recorded 70 per cent more cases with elements of the misuse of public office and public resources across Serbia than in the first week. CRTA's observers are also recording, across Serbia, an intensification of the activities of public officials as the campaign goes on.
The President of the Republic resigned halfway through the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, after months of speculation that had sustained uncertainty about the timing of the presidential election. The ability to choose the moment of his resignation, and thereby to influence the electoral calendar and the overlap of the two campaigns, gives him an advantage in shaping the conditions of the electoral race.
Media
The media presentation of electoral actors was marked by the dominance of Aleksandar Vučić and by the pronouncedly negative treatment of the Student List. On broadcasters with national coverage, Vučić received half of the total time devoted to political actors, while as much as 88 per cent of the time devoted to the Student List was negative.
Specially designated election programme slots, as well as debates on several broadcasters, including Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), were introduced in this period, providing space for all electoral actors to present themselves. The opposition's presence, however, derived primarily from content in which it was the subject of pronouncedly negative portrayal by the authorities and by outlets favourable to the authorities.
Opposition actors received a third of the time in total across all broadcasters with national coverage, but almost half of it was coloured by a negative tone.
On the public broadcaster RTS, the opposition had the smallest share of time of any broadcaster - only 15 per cent. Although that share rose compared with the period before the elections were called, it remained considerably below the opposition's share across all the observed broadcasters with national coverage taken together, and significantly below the share of time RTS gave the opposition in previous elections.
Specially designated election programme slots, as well as debates on several broadcasters, including Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), were introduced in this period, providing space for all electoral actors to present themselves. The opposition's presence, however, derived primarily from content in which it was the subject of pronouncedly negative portrayal by the authorities and by outlets favourable to the authorities.
On the public broadcaster RTS, the opposition had the smallest share of time of any broadcaster - only 15 per cent.
Opposition actors received a third of the time in total across all broadcasters with national coverage, but almost half of it was coloured by a negative tone.
On the public broadcaster RTS, the opposition had the smallest share of time of any broadcaster - only 15 per cent. Although that share rose compared with the period before the elections were called, it remained considerably below the opposition's share across all the observed broadcasters with national coverage taken together, and significantly below the share of time RTS gave the opposition in previous elections.
Independent institutions
Independent institutions are also taking part in the merging of state and party - the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) and the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. In the first half of the campaign these two institutions avoided enforcing the law in substance, while through their action or inaction they create an advantage for the ruling party in the electoral race.
The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media has not performed the tasks within its remit in the course of the election campaign so far. The REM Council was finally constituted after almost two years, 13 days from the moment the elections were called, while it applies its media monitoring methodology to a list of broadcasters that does not cover all the relevant television channels. Fifteen days into the campaign, REM had not adopted its first monitoring report.
The Agency for Prevention of Corruption interpreted the statutory provisions restrictively and applied in a non-transparent manner its duty to monitor the President of the Republic, members of the Government and officials during the election campaign, as well as to supervise the promotional activities of the authorities. The published findings on the monitoring of officials offered little information about specific activities, while for the President of the Republic and members of the Government they were not published at all.
Since the start of the election campaign CRTA has filed 19 complaints with the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, of which 13 concern breaches of the Law on Financing of Political Activities and six the Law on Prevention of Corruption. CRTA has also filed a supplement to its Initiative for active monitoring of the political activities of the Serbian Progressive Party. By the time this report was finalised, CRTA had not received a single reply to the complaints filed.
The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media has not performed the tasks within its remit in the course of the election campaign so far. The REM Council was finally constituted after almost two years, 13 days from the moment the elections were called, while it applies its media monitoring methodology to a list of broadcasters that does not cover all the relevant television channels. Fifteen days into the campaign, REM had not adopted its first monitoring report.
The Agency for Prevention of Corruption interpreted the statutory provisions restrictively and applied in a non-transparent manner its duty to monitor the President of the Republic, members of the Government and officials during the election campaign, as well as to supervise the promotional activities of the authorities. The published findings on the monitoring of officials offered little information about specific activities, while for the President of the Republic and members of the Government they were not published at all.
Since the start of the election campaign CRTA has filed 19 complaints with the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, of which 13 concern breaches of the Law on Financing of Political Activities and six the Law on Prevention of Corruption. CRTA has also filed a supplement to its Initiative for active monitoring of the political activities of the Serbian Progressive Party. By the time this report was finalised, CRTA had not received a single reply to the complaints filed.
Citizens’ enquiries to the mission
Since the calling of the elections, almost 1,000 citizens have contacted CRTA's observation mission. The largest number of them did so in connection with the exercise of the right to vote from abroad, followed by concerns about the voter register, and by various questions relating to the exercise of the right to vote.
