Opening of polling stations mainly in accordance with established procedures

The opening of polling stations for the Belgrade City Council elections went mainly in accordance with established procedures, the CRTA election observation mission stated. A total of 1.606.931 citizens has the right to vote in Belgrade elections.

A total of 94 percent of polling stations were open on time, three percent were open before 7am, while three percent of the polling stations were open with delay. All polling stations were open.

Observers deployed to a random and representative sample of 450 polling stations reported that the bags with election materials were secured with security locks at 99 percent of polling stations. Control ballots were not cast in ballot boxes at less than one percent of polling stations prior to voting. A total of 96 percent of polling stations in Belgrade were organized in accordance with established procedures. All prescribed activities were recorded in polling board records at 89 percent of polling stations.

All permanent members of polling boards were present at the opening of polls at 83 percent of polling stations.

A total of 53 percent of polling stations were not accessible for persons with disabilities throughout Belgrade. Around 95 percent of polling stations had secured conditions for the work of the polling boards.

Irregularities recorded so far included isolated incidents that cannot be considered a trend.

CRTA’s monitoring of the Belgrade elections is based on statistical principles that allow the effective and systemic observation of the election process on the day of the vote. CRTA uses the parallel vote tabulation methodology (PVT) that enables the assessment of the overall voting process on the Election Day – opening of polling stations, voting process and vote count – in an unbiased and systematic manner. PVT methodology uses a random and representative sample of polling stations, meaning that the results are representative for the entire territory.

 CRTA is a member of the global and European networks of election monitoring organizations – GNDEM and ENEMO.

CRTA election observation mission will issue the next public statement at 12 pm. You may follow the conference live at the website CRTA.rs or at the Facebook page CRTA.rs.