Update
Political context
In the last weeks before the elections, cases of violence remained unresolved, domestic and internat...
More polling stations than in 2023, confusion over some addresses
For the elections of 25 October, 8,392 polling stations have been designated, 119 more than in 2023. The area from which voters vote at a polling station has changed for 18% of polling stations in the country, which could be checked only once the register had been closed. A more serious problem is the 328 addresses that the decision closing the register lists under two or three different polling stations; a hundred of them were entered in the same way in 2023, and none has been corrected.
CRTA compared the polling stations in the decision closing the register with the polling stations from 2023 and with the decisions of local election commissions published by 19 October. CRTA, analysis of polling stations for the elections of 25 October 2026 (Belgrade, 20 October 2026). Sources: MDULS, decision closing the voter register with the annex on polling stations, as of 9 October 2026; REC, polling stations for the 2023 elections; decisions of local election commissions published on the REC website by 19 October 2026; Address Register of the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ). The 18% share refers to 1,511 polling stations with a changed area out of 8,270 in the country. The register contains 6,450,523 voters at 8,392 polling stations: 8,210 in Serbia excluding Kosovo, 60 relocated for voters from Kosovo, 93 abroad and 29 in institutions for the execution of criminal sanctions.
Table 5.1. The number of polling stations rose by 119, most of all in Belgrade
CRTA compared the polling stations in the decision closing the register with the polling stations from 2023 and with the decisions of local election commissions published by 19 October. CRTA, analysis of polling stations for the elections of 25 October 2026 (Belgrade, 20 October 2026). Sources: MDULS, decision closing the voter register with the annex on polling stations, as of 9 October 2026; REC, polling stations for the 2023 elections; decisions of local election commissions published on the REC website by 19 October 2026; Address Register of the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ). The 18% share refers to 1,511 polling stations with a changed area out of 8,270 in the country. The register contains 6,450,523 voters at 8,392 polling stations: 8,210 in Serbia excluding Kosovo, 60 relocated for voters from Kosovo, 93 abroad and 29 in institutions for the execution of criminal sanctions.
Table 5.1. The number of polling stations rose by 119, most of all in Belgrade
| 2023 | 2026 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia excluding Kosovo | 8,112 | 8,210 | +98 |
| Relocated polling stations for voters from Kosovo | 51 | 60 | +9 |
| Abroad | 81 | 93 | +12 |
| Institutions for the execution of criminal sanctions | 29 | 29 | 0 |
| Total | 8,273 | 8,392 | +119 |
Unit: number of polling stations. Source: Republic Electoral Commission (REC), polling stations for the 2023 elections; Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MDULS), decision closing the voter register, as of 9 October 2026; processed by CRTA.
The Belgrade region gained 86 polling stations and now has 1,266; on average there are 1,251 voters per polling station there, against 559 in Southern and Eastern Serbia. The number of polling stations changed in 51 municipalities and cities; it rose most in the Belgrade municipalities and Novi Sad, and fell most in Kraljevo, from 129 to 103, through mergers. The changes result mainly from large polling stations being divided and small ones being merged; probably thirteen villages have been left without a polling station. Estimate based on an additional check: the initial comparison showed 37 discontinued and 20 new polling stations, but most of them turned out to be the same polling station with a differently recorded area, or a merger within the same building. In villages where addresses were recorded under the name of the village in 2023 and as “no street” in 2026, the comparison is less reliable.
The area of a polling station, that is, the list of streets and house numbers whose voters vote there, changed in 552 groups of linked polling stations, in 115 of the 168 municipalities and cities outside Kosovo. A change of area most often follows the division of large polling stations and new addresses, but without timely publication it cannot be checked whether this is the case everywhere: as in 2023, a single overview of the areas for the whole country became available only with the decision closing the register, two weeks before the elections, while the individual decisions of local election commissions were published as documents that are not machine-readable. CRTA, Elections 2023: final report (Belgrade: CRTA, February 2024), 23.
The most serious finding concerns 328 addresses, with street and house number, that the decision closing the register lists under two or three polling stations at different locations, in 33 municipalities and cities, with the largest numbers in Varvarin, Kruševac, Novi Pazar, Barajevo and Raška. A hundred of these addresses were also listed under more than one polling station in 2023, which means that the problem was neither noticed nor corrected between the two elections, and none of them has been corrected by the decisions published after the closing either. The decision does not show how many voters there are at these addresses, or whether the same door is meant, because the same street and number may exist in two parts of a settlement; the explanation may be an error in address records, the assignment of a building's entrances to different polling stations, or the incomplete transfer of a street from one polling station to another, but by the time this report was finalised nobody had given one. The consequences are twofold. For voters, such an address creates confusion and may jeopardise the right to vote: a voter who goes to the polling station where members of their household or their neighbours vote, and is not listed in the extract from the register, may think they have been turned away and give up, rather than look for another polling station they do not know about. For oversight of the elections, the same address in two extracts opens up the possibility that the same voter appears in both. CRTA will ask MDULS and the local election commissions for an explanation, starting with the hundred addresses that have been repeated since 2023.
The Belgrade region gained 86 polling stations and now has 1,266; on average there are 1,251 voters per polling station there, against 559 in Southern and Eastern Serbia. The number of polling stations changed in 51 municipalities and cities; it rose most in the Belgrade municipalities and Novi Sad, and fell most in Kraljevo, from 129 to 103, through mergers. The changes result mainly from large polling stations being divided and small ones being merged; probably thirteen villages have been left without a polling station. Estimate based on an additional check: the initial comparison showed 37 discontinued and 20 new polling stations, but most of them turned out to be the same polling station with a differently recorded area, or a merger within the same building. In villages where addresses were recorded under the name of the village in 2023 and as “no street” in 2026, the comparison is less reliable.
The area of a polling station, that is, the list of streets and house numbers whose voters vote there, changed in 552 groups of linked polling stations, in 115 of the 168 municipalities and cities outside Kosovo. A change of area most often follows the division of large polling stations and new addresses, but without timely publication it cannot be checked whether this is the case everywhere: as in 2023, a single overview of the areas for the whole country became available only with the decision closing the register, two weeks before the elections, while the individual decisions of local election commissions were published as documents that are not machine-readable. CRTA, Elections 2023: final report (Belgrade: CRTA, February 2024), 23.
The most serious finding concerns 328 addresses, with street and house number, that the decision closing the register lists under two or three polling stations at different locations, in 33 municipalities and cities, with the largest numbers in Varvarin, Kruševac, Novi Pazar, Barajevo and Raška. A hundred of these addresses were also listed under more than one polling station in 2023, which means that the problem was neither noticed nor corrected between the two elections, and none of them has been corrected by the decisions published after the closing either. The decision does not show how many voters there are at these addresses, or whether the same door is meant, because the same street and number may exist in two parts of a settlement; the explanation may be an error in address records, the assignment of a building's entrances to different polling stations, or the incomplete transfer of a street from one polling station to another, but by the time this report was finalised nobody had given one. The consequences are twofold. For voters, such an address creates confusion and may jeopardise the right to vote: a voter who goes to the polling station where members of their household or their neighbours vote, and is not listed in the extract from the register, may think they have been turned away and give up, rather than look for another polling station they do not know about. For oversight of the elections, the same address in two extracts opens up the possibility that the same voter appears in both. CRTA will ask MDULS and the local election commissions for an explanation, starting with the hundred addresses that have been repeated since 2023.
