Since the early hours of the morning, long queues have been established before the deployments in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and other cities of Serbia. Some citizens have waited for three hours to exercise the right to vote.
Belgrade citizens he talked to RTK has expressed expectations for free and fair elections.
I expect great participation and triumph of rule of law, a citizen said.
The three of us are waiting for three hours now. If we have to, we’ll wait another three hours. We expect elections to be free and fair, another voter said.
The apparent attendance higher than in 2023
According to the Republican Election Commission ( RIC), by 12: 00 p.m., 34,55 percent of citizens have voted, while in the 2023 parliamentary elections, attendance was 21.33 percent at the same time.
Meanwhile, the CRTA monitoring organization has indicated that by 1: 00 p.m., turnout had reached 41.1 percent, compared to 26.6 percent in previous elections.
The highest turnout by noon was registered in Vojvodina at 38,08 percent, while 35,23 percent of voters had voted in Belgrade.
During the day, top political representatives, including Aleksandar Vucicin, student List host Ilija Srdanovic, Socialist Party of Serbia Chairman Ivica Dacic, and representatives of the opposition, have voted.
CRTA reports violations of voter secrecy
Despite high turnout, election day is being accompanied by reports of irregularities.
The CRTA organisation has reported that 16 percent of the surveys monitoring have recorded delays in openings, while one of the most frequent problems is violation of the vote’s secrecy, especially photoisation of the balloting.
CRTA programming director Rasa Nedeljkov has declared that by noon, the photos of the balloting have been observed in every fourth poll monitored by this organisation.
In Belgrade, according to him, this irregularities are recorded in every second poll that monitors CRTA.
Cases of unauthorized persons’ presence at the polls have also been reported, as well as suspicions of vote purchases in Novi Sad.
On the other hand, Republican Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Dimitrijevic has stated that the vote is largely being conducted in order, though several incidents and disagreements have been recorded among members of election councils.
Kosovo vote, diaspora
In parliamentary elections in Serbia, eligible voters have a total of 6,451,292 citizens, while for 250 seats in the Assembly compete 18 electoral lists.
For Serb voters from Kosovo, 60 seats have been scheduled in four cities in Serbia, Vranje, Kursumli, Raska and Tutti.
Interest in the elections is also in the diaspora, where over 102 thousand voters are registered. The vote outside Serbia is organised in 93 locations in 37 states.
Over 16 thousand local and international observers, including representatives of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, are forwarding the election process.
OSCE Special Co-ordinator for Election Observation Zely Bohm has estimated that high turnout shows citizens’ interest in the country’s future. He has said representatives of the two main election lists have expressed readiness to accept the results.
The locations will be closed by 8:00, when the first marks of results are expected.
The elections are held after several months of student and civic protests, while attention has focused mainly on Aleksandar Vuciqi’s bloc and Student List.
The results will show how much citizens’ discontent has turned into electoral support, while observers’ assessments will be important for the credibility of the election process.
Source Layer: RTKLive
