Update
The week on television: 5-11 October 2026
The ruling majority took 77% of political airtime, up from 66% a week earlier, and Aleksandar Vučić ...
On 16 October 2026, the Commission for the Audit, Verification, Control of Accuracy and Updating of the Voter Register published a statement distancing itself from findings presented a week earlier by the Government's Office for IT and eGovernment. The Commission confirmed that the platform for analysing the voter register was developed in cooperation with it, but stated that the findings in the Office's statement "are not the result of consistent application of the methodology established by the Commission".
The Office presented the platform on 9 October. The platform compares the Unified Voter Register with the residence records of the Ministry of Interior and the birth and death registers kept by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, for each municipality and for Serbia as a whole. According to the Office, the register and the list compiled from source records matched almost entirely as of 1 September 2026, and the level of compliance was expected to rise further after additional checks. The Office also stated that the platform had been developed in cooperation with the Commission and "applying the methodology it established" - the claim the Commission has now qualified.
The Commission further stated that neither the findings of other state bodies nor the views its members express in individual public appearances represent the findings and positions of the Commission, which it establishes in accordance with the law. It announced that it will continue to inform the public through statements and that it will submit its report on the audit of the voter register to the National Assembly. The statement does not cite any figure of its own.
At the session of 13 October, Commission members disputed the Office for IT's claim that the register matches the source records by at least 98 percent, for four reasons. First, the analysis did not cover the whole register, as it excluded voters registered in municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija. Second, citizenship was not checked, although under the Constitution only citizens of Serbia have the right to vote, and the register was compared only with the birth and death registers and the residence records. Third, the analysis omits all the people who should be in the voter register but are missing from it. The Office has not accounted for them, and the Commission had received no data on them despite repeated requests. Fourth, the results were preliminary and had been published without the Commission's knowledge or decision, while Commission members still had no direct access to the platform and had been unable to check them.
Accordingly, the Office's assessment cannot be read as a finding of the body legally mandated to audit the register. The disagreement comes shortly before the parliamentary elections of 25 October 2026, and after CRTA's observation mission noted in its interim report that the Commission still had not received basic data needed for the audit. A comprehensive and independent audit of the voter register has been among the central ODIHR recommendations following previous elections. By contrast with announced results, the Commission's own assessment of the register's accuracy remains pending.
The Office presented the platform on 9 October. The platform compares the Unified Voter Register with the residence records of the Ministry of Interior and the birth and death registers kept by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, for each municipality and for Serbia as a whole. According to the Office, the register and the list compiled from source records matched almost entirely as of 1 September 2026, and the level of compliance was expected to rise further after additional checks. The Office also stated that the platform had been developed in cooperation with the Commission and "applying the methodology it established" - the claim the Commission has now qualified.
The Commission further stated that neither the findings of other state bodies nor the views its members express in individual public appearances represent the findings and positions of the Commission, which it establishes in accordance with the law. It announced that it will continue to inform the public through statements and that it will submit its report on the audit of the voter register to the National Assembly. The statement does not cite any figure of its own.
At the session of 13 October, Commission members disputed the Office for IT's claim that the register matches the source records by at least 98 percent, for four reasons. First, the analysis did not cover the whole register, as it excluded voters registered in municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija. Second, citizenship was not checked, although under the Constitution only citizens of Serbia have the right to vote, and the register was compared only with the birth and death registers and the residence records. Third, the analysis omits all the people who should be in the voter register but are missing from it. The Office has not accounted for them, and the Commission had received no data on them despite repeated requests. Fourth, the results were preliminary and had been published without the Commission's knowledge or decision, while Commission members still had no direct access to the platform and had been unable to check them.
The Office's assessment cannot be read as a finding of the body legally mandated to audit the register.
Accordingly, the Office's assessment cannot be read as a finding of the body legally mandated to audit the register. The disagreement comes shortly before the parliamentary elections of 25 October 2026, and after CRTA's observation mission noted in its interim report that the Commission still had not received basic data needed for the audit. A comprehensive and independent audit of the voter register has been among the central ODIHR recommendations following previous elections. By contrast with announced results, the Commission's own assessment of the register's accuracy remains pending.
