Second Preliminary Long-Term Observation Report; February 15th – March 25th

The preliminary report of the Observation Mission on the quality of the election campaign for the presidential, parliamentary, and Belgrade city elections, which will be held on April 3, 2022, shows that the institutions responsible for law enforcement and protection of voting rights have not sufficiently contributed to protecting the public interest or achieving higher standards for free and democratic elections. Those institutions that did react to violations of the law during the campaign, did not have an impact on changing the behaviour of those election actors who abused their institutional advantages in the election race. Measures to improve election conditions, stemming from two inter-party dialogues, have resulted in a more complex legislative and institutional framework for conducting elections. But, in practice, they have not contributed to addressing the burning issues with elections in Serbia: media inequality of election participants, misuse of public resources, clientelist practices, and pressure being put on voters.