The Anti-Corruption Law which was adopted today does not allow curbing of public resources abuse and the prevention of public officials’ campaign, and is in fact yet another missed opportunity to improve legal framework for the conduct of the elections is Serbia, assessed the organisation CRTA.
The electoral atmosphere in the municipalities of Lučani, Kula, Kladovo and Doljevac, where local elections shall be held on Sunday, are characterised primarily by public officials’ campaigning. In all four municipalities, an intense presence of public officials was noted – from ministers to directors of services and public companies – accompanied by the abuse of public resources. These are the main findings of the CRTA observation mission whose observers monitor the election campaign on the spot.
The electoral atmosphere in the municipalities of Lučani, Kula, Kladovo and Doljevac, where local elections shall be held on Sunday, are characterised primarily by public officials’ campaigning. In all four municipalities, an intense presence of public officials was noted – from ministers to directors of services and public companies – accompanied by the abuse of public resources. These are the main findings of the CRTA observation mission whose observers monitor the election campaign on the spot.
The Anti-Corruption Agency imposed a warning measure to Andreja Mladenović because he conducted a public officials’ campaign and abused his position of a Deputy Mayor for promotion of the election list where he was a candidate. The Agency submitted to the competent Misdemeanour Court in Mladenovac a request for initiation of misdemeanour proceedings against Andreja Mladenović.
A total of seven percent of citizens registered in the voters list have voted at the Belgrade City Council elections until 10 am, the CRTA election observation mission stated. Margin of error was +/- 0,1 percent. In comparison with 2017 presidential elections voter turnout by 10 am is lower by 2,79 percent, and lower than 1,3 percent when compared to parliamentary elections.
Within the last two hours, the safety of CRTA observers was endangered in two recorded cases. One occurred outside of the polling station at Novi Beograd and the other at the polling station in Zvezdara municipality.
CRTA election observation mission has not recorded an increase in the percentage of election irregularities until 4 pm – six percent of irregularities was recorded. Hoever, additional breaches of election procedures were observed at polling stations with already recorded irregularities. These included not checking voters’ identification documents prior to voting, not using the invisible spray, parallel lists of voters and breaches of secrecy of voting.
According to the CRTA election observation mission, a total of 36,9 percent of citizens registered in the voters list have voted at the Belgrade City Council elections until 4 pm. Margin of error was +/- 0,3 percent.
Until 1 pm, individual incidents outside of polling stations were also recorded. These included cases where groups of voters were brought collectively to cast a vote and parallel lists of voters in front of polling stations handled by unidentified persons, which all happened in coordination with members of polling boards.
