#12 ENSURE EQUAL VOTING RIGHT FOR ALL CATEGORIES OF VOTERS
The general suffrage in principle means that each individual has the right to vote and to be elected (VC I.1.1) and must be equal, i.e. each voter has one vote (I.2.1). Residence may be prescribed as a condition of the right to vote (I.1.1.c), and the right to vote and to be elected may be granted to citizens living abroad (I.1.1.c.v). In order for these standards to be met, it is necessary to undertake the following:
- Change the contents and the method of submitting notifications to vote Due to the frequent occurrence of delivering notifications to vote to addresses where voters do not have a permanent/temporary place of residence, the confusion and various manipulations that occur a few days before the Election Day, it is necessary to determine the method and contents of notifications to vote differently. The CRTA proposal is that the notification to vote be depersonalised, and that it be placed in the form of a notification on buildings/houses/residential buildings in the territory covered by each individual polling station (the boundaries of polling stations are determined according to the streets and numbers of residential buildings). The notification would contain information about the type of election, the date and the polling station where voters can exercise their right to vote. Local governments would be responsible for posting these notifications. In this way, the notification to vote would fulfill its basic purpose – providing information about the type, place and time of voting, while avoiding any interpretation of the basis for the individual voting rights of voters.
- Ensure the secrecy of vote of blind and visually impaired persons In the previous practice of conducting the elections, by-laws and the accompanying regulations did not contain provisions on the implementation of standards that would allow voting of blind and visually impaired persons respecting the secrecy of the ballot. The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government enabled both blind and visually impaired people to check the data in the Unified Voters’ Register on the website. It is necessary to amend electoral laws and/or pass a special instruction on the voting of blind and partially sighted persons (by-law), in the direction of fulfilling all standards that will ensure blind and partially sighted persons to exercise their right to vote in an appropriate manner, assuming the secrecy of voting (ballots available in Braille format or templates may be some of the solutions).
- Suspend deletion of voters from the Voters’ Register with passivated place of residence Since in the previous period, the Ministry of the Interior submitted reports to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government on the basis of which voters whose address of residence was passivated were deleted from the Unified Voters’ Register, it is necessary that this practice, since there are no solid grounds in the law, be stopped. In the current laws in Serbia, passivation of the address of residence does not represent a legal basis for deregistration of residence, but only the record data of the competent authority that the citizen does not live at the address of registered residence, based on which emanates the citizen’s obligation to register residence, or if they fail to do so, the obligation of the competent authority (Ministry of the Interior) to determine the address of residence. Citizens whose addresses have been passivated should, from the standpoint of the voter’s right, remain registered in the Voters’ Register with the last known address of residence, until the moment of change of residence or allocation of residence by the competent authority. In the event that the Ministry of the Interior determines the residence of citizens whose residence is passivated, such a change would entail a change of residence in the Voters’ Register, which means that the citizen could exercise their right to vote at another polling station (to which the new residence address belongs).
- Prompt the MFA to open a contact centre for information related to voting abroad The lack of timely communication by official state bodies with voters who wish to exercise their right to vote abroad is one of the key problems recognised in the diaspora voting process. Instead of the previous role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in informing voters (publishing information on how to exercise the right to vote and the contact list of diplomatic and consular representations where the right to vote can be exercised), the MFA can open a contact centre for all questions and concerns of voters who want to vote abroad. The contact centre would operate from the calling of the election to the announcement of the final results, and in addition to information on how to register and vote abroad, it would work as support for voters in communication and connection with other state bodies, all with the aim of exercising the right to vote, i.e. timely and correct filling in of applications for voting abroad.
- Liberalise the condition for opening of polling stations abroad It is necessary to Modify the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament so that there is an obligation to open for voting every diplomatic and consular representation of the Republic of Serbia abroad, if at least five voters register to vote. The existing solution in the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament has a restrictive character for voters living abroad, since it prescribes a minimum of 100 voters to open a polling station, regardless of whether it refers to polling stations abroad or in Serbia. The right of voters to vote abroad should not be limited in practice by this condition. The requirement of 5 voters would exist only to ensure the secrecy of the vote.
- Regulate the procedure of voting abroad more accurately and transparently, including the division of competences of state authorities
It is necessary to regulate the procedure of voting abroad in a more precise and transparent manner by determining the specific division of competences between the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then prescribing deadlines for deciding on requests and the procedure for protecting the voting rights abroad. Moreover, it is indispensable to define to which body the voters can send their complaint depending on a concrete request, as well as the deadlines for making a decision on these complaints.
In addition, it is necessary to introduce a deadline for passing and submitting the decision on approval of voting abroad. Currently, the Law only provides for the deadline for submitting the notification to vote, from which the deadline for submitting the decision on voting abroad is derived. This deadline should be the shortest possible in order to enable the protection of rights through legal remedies.
Information on the application procedure for voting abroad, deadlines for resolving requests and competent institutions for resolving legal remedies should be published on the website of the REC and each organisational unit of the MFA that participates in the conduct of elections.
- Ensure a uniform and sustainable practice of conducting elections for voters from Kosovo Ensure a permanent legal solution for conducting elections for voters from the territory of Kosovo through open dialogue and debate. The different practice of organising the voting of voters from Kosovo in the elections and referendum held in 2022 introduced uncertainty in the conduct of the elections, which is why it is necessary to establish a legal and uniform practice. Therefore, it is necessary to form a miscellaneous working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the REC, the Constitutional Court, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and a civil society that would have to create a proposal for a uniform and sustainable solution that regulates the organisation and implementation of the electoral process in Kosovo, which would subsequently find its place in the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament.
