Without addressing impunity, elections cannot be improved

Key issues such as pressure on voters, significant media inequality, compromise of the Voter Registry, and blurring the lines between state and party are, unfortunately, not on the agenda of this meeting – said Rasa Nedeljkov, CRTA’s Program Director, at a meeting held today in the parliament at the invitation of Ana Brnabic, President of the National Assembly, on the topic of ODIHR recommendations and proposed amendments to electoral laws.

Nedeljkov warned of the current alarming state of the Voter Registry. In the last three and a half months, the number of registered voters in Serbia has decreased by as much as 41,110 voters. On average, 400 voters per day. In comparison, in the 20 months between the 2022 and 2023 elections, an average of 31 voters were deleted daily. It is additionally concerning that this drastic reduction in the number of voters was recorded at only six percent of polling stations in Serbia, while elsewhere no changes are recorded.

CRTA has prepared and submitted comments on the proposed law amendments, but also expressed the opinion that discussions on legal changes can only be approached when three clear prerequisites for restoring the integrity of the electoral process are met – accountability for violations of the law in the electoral process, revision of the Voter Registry, and raising professional standards in the work of public media services, considering the dramatic deficit of political pluralism and objective information in the media.

Consideration of other steps without fulfilling these prerequisites will not fundamentally change anything – said Nedeljkov – Without establishing accountability for crimes related to elections, the culture of impunity is strengthened and normalized.

Representatives of CRTA listed a long list of examples of impunity and undermining the rule of law: forgery of voter support signatures from 2016 until the last elections, falsification of the issuance date of the Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade with the final results of municipal elections, unauthorized interventions in the Voter Registry, vote buying…

Regarding the December elections, there were no cases of urgent reaction of the prosecution despite publicly available information and evidence pointing to criminal acts – such as illegally assigned residencies in Belgrade to individuals who did not meet the necessary requirements, all within the framework of organized voter migrations.

CRTA believes that it is important to have discussions, but it is even more important what is being discussed, and that by choosing easier topics we will not solve the most difficult problems.

CRTA’s comments on the proposed law amendments in Serbian can be accessed here.