#13 UPDATE AND VERIFY THE VOTERS’ REGISTER

The Voters’ Register must be reliable (VC I.1.2), permanent (I.1.2.i), and regularly updated (I.1.2.ii). Besides, voters must be able to register and correct incorrect information in the Voters’ Register (I.1.2.iv, v). The Code of Good Practice states that the Voters’ Register must be published (I.1.2.iii), and this is indicated by the Copenhagen document which seeks to ensure that voting is conducted in secret and the official results are announced publicly. (CD 7.4). In order for these standards to be met, it is necessary to undertake the following:

1. Continue to update the Voters’ Register and make the process more transparent

   Thanks to the electronic connection of birth and marriage registers with the Unified Voters’ Register, its updating has been improved in terms of reducing the number of possible errors that occur when entering data. Despite the periodic publication of the number of voters by local self-government units (from October 2021, once in three), the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government does not publish periodical statistics on the number and type of changes in the voter list by local self-government unit (by type of change: data change, registration, deletion, etc.) The publication of the mentioned statistics would contribute to the transparency of the entire process, but also to the confidence of voters and the public in general in the Voters’ Register and the method/basis of updating. The stated statistical presentation of changes could be published by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government on the page of the site dedicated to the Voters’ Register. Moreover, it is necessary that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government make an additional effort to explain in a simple and accessible way the process of updating the Voters’ Register, the role and responsibilities of the officers, the course of the ‘matter’ so that the voters and the public can understand this process more clearly. We distinguish the process of updating the Voters’ Register from the process of verification of the Voters’ Register, which refers to the independent and systematic verification of data in the Voters’ Register. The update process refers to the entry of data to the Voters’ Register, while verification means checking the authenticity of already entered data.

2.  Organise a continuous training for officers who update the Voters’ Register and publish information on conducted trainings

   Regularly continue with trainings for all employees of the Ministry of the Public Administration and the Local Self-Government who update the Unified Voters’ Register so that potential problems during the updating or revision of the Voters’ Register would be avoided. The value of joint trainings is also based on achieving an equal understanding of the instructions/tasks of the officers in local self-government units in specific cases in which their action is necessary.

3.  Identify practical problems in the Voters’ Register updating

   It is necessary that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government directly and intensively communicate with persons who update the Unified Voters’ Register in local self-government units in order to recognise the problems that these persons face in practice and to conduct effective training based on precisely identified problems that will lead to uniformity of their actions. During the 2022 election process, the CRTA noticed that some local governments have different standards of conduct when registering voters for voting by residence, in such a way that some ask for a certificate of residence, and some do not, which could cause additional confusion for voters.

4. Facilitate citizens’ procedures for updating data in the Voters’ Register

   It is necessary that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, but also all local self-governments, publish a standardised form for registration in the Voters’ Register on their websites and inform the citizens about the possibilities to electronically send the completed form with a copy of a valid personal document. In addition to publishing these forms, it is necessary for the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government to make an additional effort and inform voters about these possibilities and procedures through an educational campaign.

5. Provide each voter with insight into the total number of voters registered at their residential address

   In addition to the existing possibilities of insight into parts of the Unified Voters’ Register, it is necessary to provide on the website of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government additional features that would enable voters to view the number of registered voters at their addresses. By entering the unique master citizen number, as well as the ID card number, the voter would get an insight into the number of persons registered at the address of their residence. In order to protect personal data, the search would not allow the voter to see the names and surnames of the registered persons, but only the number of persons registered at that address. Based on this information, the owner of the flat could later request from the Ministry of the Interior data on registered persons and, if necessary, request passivation of the addresses of persons who are registered and do not live at the address of their flat.

6. Allow voters to vote at their chosen place of stay instead of by temporary place of residence

   The Law on the Unified Voters’ Register stipulates that voters may, no later than five days before the day of the conclusion of the Voters’ Register, submit a request to enter in the Electoral Roll the information that the voter will vote according to the temporary place of residence in the country. The concept of temporary residence is defined by the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens as a place where a citizen temporarily stays outside their permanent place of residence for more than 90 days, which is reported to the Ministry of the Interior in a clearly prescribed procedure.

   In practice, the competent municipal or city administrations interpret the provision of the Law on the Unified Electoral Roll differently: while some enable voting by temporary place of residence regardless of whether the citizen has a formally registered temporary residence on the territory of that municipality, others who strictly interpret the Law on the Unified Voters’ Register, enter the data on voting by temporary place of residence only for those voters who have registered their temporary residence in the Ministry of the Interior on the territory of the local self-government unit for which it is competent. In order to standardise the practice, and in order to increase the number of citizens who, for any reason, will not reside in the local self-government unit in which they have a permanent or temporary residence on the Election Day, it is necessary to amend the Law on Unified Voters’ Register and prescribe that voters are allowed to submit a request to enter in the Voters’ Register the information that in the upcoming elections they will vote according to the chosen place of stay in the country, and not according to the temporary place of residence as prescribed by the existing legal solution.

7.  Amend the Law on Unified Voters’ Register so that residence is not a condition for exercising the right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections

   The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament and the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic provide that the right to vote and be elected has the right to vote and be elected by every citizen of the Republic of Serbia who is of age, with active legal capacity (that is, over whom parental rights have not been extended, i.e. who is not declared legally incompetent). None of the aforementioned acts stipulates residence as a basis for enjoying the right to vote. Although registration in the Voters’ Register is not a basis for enjoying the right to vote, it is a necessary condition for exercising that right. A citizen of the Republic of Serbia of legal age who is not registered in the Voters’ Register will not be able to exercise his right to vote.

   According to the Law on Unified Voters’ Register, residence is provided as one of the data necessary for a citizen to be registered in the Unified Voters’ Register, with the fact that a voter who resides abroad is entered in the Voters’ Register according to the last place of residence before going abroad, i.e. the last place of residence of one of his parents. In practice, the fact that they do not have a residence in the country in some cases represented an obstacle to registration in the Voters’ Register and, consequently, exercising the electoral right of voters who have a residence abroad. In the existing legal framework, the citizens who have never had a residence in Serbia and whose parents do not have a residence in the country cannot be entered in the Voters’ Register. Also, citizens of Serbia who have registered their residence in Serbia after emigrating and who do not have a valid identity card of the Republic of Serbia, due to technical limitations of the Unified Voters’ Register database, could not be entered in the Voters’ Register by the place of their last (deregistered) place of residence, but only by the place of residence of their parents in Serbia. Finally, some citizens whose residence address was passivated were deleted from the Voters’ Register with the explanation that they “do not have a residence in the territory of Serbia”.

   Although it is not disputed that the registration of residence in the Unified Voters’ Register facilitates the connection of voters with the appropriate polling station and thus the conduct of elections, it is necessary to consistently implement constitutional and legal provisions that do not recognise the place of residence as a condition and a basis for enjoying the right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections, and enable each citizen of Serbia who is of age, with active legal capacity to exercise their right to vote despite the fact that they do not have a residence on the territory of Serbia.

8. Simplify the procedure for owners to see data about persons registered at the address of their real estate

   It is necessary for the Ministry of Interior to establish a database that would allow the owner of the flat to inspect the information about the names of persons whose permanent or temporary place of residence is registered at the address of the real estate that they own. In this way, the procedure that is already available to real estate owners, but with a mandatory visit to the police and payment of an administrative fee, would be facilitated and accelerated.

   The database should be integrated with the existing E-government system, for the sake of greater efficiency and transparency of the process.

9.  Verify the Voters’ Register

   It is necessary that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, in a procedure that would include representatives of relevant institutions, political parties, civil society organisations, academic and international community after assessing the impact of data processing within the Voters’ Register verification process on personal data protection, verify the Voters’ Register on an appropriate sample in accordance with international standards and recognised methodologies. The aim of the verification would be to determine, in the field control procedure on the appropriate sample, the percentage of voters who are registered in the Voters’ Register but who emigrated from Serbia or who for another reason do not actually reside at the address entered in the Voters’ Register, as well as the percentage of deceased persons still registered and also the percentage of people who have the right to vote but who are not registered in the Voters’ Register. In addition, in the verification process, it is necessary that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government engage a thorough statistical analysis by hiring IT experts, who would determine irregularities and illogicalities in the Unified Voters’ Register system itself (double entries, incorrect personal numbers, etc.). In 2019. the Government of Serbia began the process of verifying the Voters’ Register, by forming a working group for its verification, but the process has not been carried out and still remains to be completed.