Observation mission: Belgrade election results do not reflect citizens' will

(Patria) - The CRTA observation mission assesses that the results of the Belgrade elections do not reflect the free will of the voters living there, due to the extent and nature of electoral abuses during yesterday's vote.

CRTA Program Director Raša Nedeljkov says they express great concern regarding the quality of the parliamentary elections, assessing that drastic violations of voters' rights, laws, and institutions escalated on election day.

- Irregularities that directly compromised election results were recorded at five percent of polling stations for the parliamentary elections and at as many as nine percent of polling stations for the Belgrade elections - Nedeljkov pointed out.

He notes that in the afternoon and evening hours of election day, there was a "clear trend of a significant increase in cases of pre-filled ballots and illegal presence of third parties at these polling stations, especially in Belgrade".

- Also, in Belgrade, by the end of the day, the number of polling stations where cases of someone signing the voter list instead of the voter were recorded tripled compared to the first half of the day - Nedeljkov emphasized.

The polling stations, he adds, closed under circumstances of a worrying increase in cases of parallel record-keeping inside and outside the polling station, organized bringing of voters, and suspicious car circulation around the polling station.

- Under such conditions, the legitimacy of any future local elections will be under the same suspicion unless institutions engage in establishing the truth and accountability for violations and circumvention of the law and the undermining of election legitimacy - Nedeljkov states.

Yesterday, the media recorded numerous buses bringing people from the BiH entity of RS. Some of them, not knowing they were talking to journalists, said they came to vote. When asked why they were not fulfilling their civic duty in their place of residence, they did not know how to answer.

CRTA's recommendations to the authorities in Serbia are that the prosecutor's office impartially investigate allegations of criminal offenses in the elections and election campaign, and that the Law on Local Elections be amended so that the right to vote in local elections is acquired only after citizens have resided for six months.

According to Raša Nedeljkov, it is necessary to make the voter list more transparent by publishing data on the number of voters per household, RSE reports.

CRTA also recommended that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government conduct an independent audit of the voter list in accordance with the recommendations of the ODIHR mission and international standards, and that notaries be entrusted with the exclusive jurisdiction for certifying voter support signatures in the nomination process.