Local elections in three municipalities in Serbia amid new allegations of irregularities

Since the start of anti-government protests and more than a year of political crisis in Serbia, another showdown between the government and its opponents is on the agenda – local elections in three municipalities are scheduled for Sunday, November 30.

The residents of Mionica, Sečanj, and Negotin will go to the polls.

In all three municipalities, the current government is made up of a coalition centered on the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which also holds power at the republic level.

Five months earlier, local elections were held amid student protests and a near-referendum atmosphere in Zaječar and Kosjerić. The ruling coalition ultimately won in both places.

These elections were marked by high tensions, and independent observers reported that they were “neither free nor fair,” as was also emphasized in a European Parliament resolution adopted in October.

And while the relevant ministry says these elections will be conducted in accordance with the law, the organization Transparency Serbia (TS) warns that the campaign is taking place under “unequal conditions” that favor the ruling party and its coalition partners.

“The regulations did not regulate mechanisms whose use easily creates unequal conditions and a huge advantage for the ruling party,” Zlatko Minić of Transparency Serbia told RFE/RL.

“When something is unequal, it naturally raises the question of whether these are fair and equitable conditions,” he added.

RFE/RL has not received any comments on the allegations of election irregularities from the Serbian government, the Serbian presidential office, or the ruling SNS. At the close of the electoral rolls, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Snežana Paunović stated that complete legality, transparency, and timeliness of voter data were guaranteed for the upcoming elections.

“The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that every citizen exercises their right to vote on the basis of accurate and complete data in the electoral register and that local authorities have all the necessary support to organize elections in accordance with the law,” she said on November 15.

The elections in Negotin and Mionica are regular elections and are being held before the end of the four-year term of the municipal assemblies. In Sečanj, extraordinary elections will be held.

Mionica

Mionica is a municipality in western Serbia with a population of around 17,000.

Six electoral lists have entered the race for power in this municipality. They are competing for 39 seats in the local parliament.

The list “Aleksandar Vučić – Best for Mionica” was jointly submitted by the Serbian Progressive Party, the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Party of United Pensioners, Farmers and Proletarians of Serbia, and the Serbian Radical Party.

Rasim Ljajić’s Social Democratic Party of Serbia is running independently. The party was on the SNS list in the 2023 parliamentary elections.

The Bunt – Prava Srbija party, which has the status of a Russian national minority party, will also participate in the elections.

Three lists of civic groups were also submitted. For the first time, one list will be led by students from the city – “United for Mionica.”

Also in the running are the list “Education and Knowledge Against Corruption and Crime Milan Gavrilović – Ćićovan” and the list “For the Rescue and Restoration of Mionica Villages – Radovan Rade Marković – Mirko Jović.”

Sečanj

Sečanj, with just over 10,000 inhabitants, is one of the smaller municipalities in Vojvodina. It is located in the northeast of the country.

Early elections were called at the end of October after the previous local parliament was dissolved by decision of the Serbian government. The official reasons for the dissolution were not explained in detail.

The previous elections in this municipality were held in April 2022. In this year’s elections, 23 councillors will be elected from five electoral lists.

In this municipality, the SNS list also bears the name of the president of the country.

There will also be a list named after the current Minister of Police – “Ivica Dačić – Socialist Party of Serbia – for the municipality of all of us”.

There is also a list from the Serbian Radical Party, named after its leader and Hague-convicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj.

The civic group “Vukašin Baćina – For a Better Municipality of Sečanj” is also participating in the elections.

All of them participated in the previous elections, but the list “Voice of the Youth Changing Sečanj,” submitted by the civic group of the same name, is participating for the first time.

Negotin

Negotin in eastern Serbia is the largest of the three municipalities in which elections have been called. According to the 2002 census, it has a population of approximately 43,500.

Four lists will compete for 45 seats in the municipal council in this municipality.

As in the other two municipalities, the list in Negotin bears the name of the president of the country – “Aleksandar Vučić – Best for Negotin!”. The coalition under this name has brought together the SNS, SPS, PUPS, and SRS.

The opposition is also united in the fight for power in Negotin – the People’s Movement of Serbia, the Serbian Center, the Party of Freedom and Justice, and the Democratic Party.

The list of the civic group “Europe and Youth” was also published, as was the list “Serbian Liberals for Green Negotin,” which is supported by the Serbian Liberal Party, led since March by pulmonologist Dejan Žujović.

Official campaign

Since the election was announced, visits by the president and ministers from various departments have been frequent in all three municipalities. They stand shoulder to shoulder with local officials and promise new roads, renovations, investments…

According to data from Transparency Serbia, state officials have visited Mionica, Sečanj, and Negotin 27 times more often in the last five weeks than during the period outside the campaign.

“This is clearly not a regular activity, as they are trying to portray it,” comments Zlatko Minić from TS.

He emphasizes that what is at work here is what they call an official campaign.

“When a state official visits factories, schools, and farms during the elections and promises various investments from his public position, this is actually used to support the local lists of the party to which he belongs,” says Minić.

He explains that this is presented to voters as an activity of local authorities or as a result of good cooperation between local and republican authorities.

“At the same time, this is used to scare citizens that all this will stop if there is a change of government, because it will no longer be in harmony with the republican authorities and the president,” he says.

However, he notes that “the problem is that they are not doing anything wrong under domestic law.”

Although this does not violate domestic law, it does violate the recommendations for improving the electoral process issued to Serbia in June 2024 by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), TS points out.

One of the key recommendations is the separation of party and state power and the prevention of abuse of public resources.

“To implement this recommendation, significantly stricter rules on the functioning of public servants and institutions during the campaign must be prescribed,” TS said.

Suspicions of numerous electoral irregularities have dogged the government led by the Serbian Progressive Party since previous election cycles. Following the parliamentary, provincial, and local elections in December 2023, international and domestic observers raised numerous objections.

Therefore, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) issued 25 recommendations to Serbia for improving the electoral process.

Transparency Serbia also emphasizes that in the current campaign, “existing legal restrictions have not always been respected.”

As an example, they cite a post on the official website of the municipality of Negotin, which, they say, was “openly biased towards the Serbian Progressive Party,” prompting TS to file a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Agency. So far, they say, there has been no response.

The president of the country in local elections

On November 23, the president of Serbia attended one of the public rallies before the elections in the village of Jaša Tomić in the municipality of Sečanj.

TS emphasized that he was “welcomed there as the president of the republic, and the media referred to him as such in their reports on the event.”

“The Law on the Prevention of Corruption requires public servants to clearly indicate to their interlocutors and the public when they are acting in this capacity and when they are expressing the views of their party,” they emphasized.

Also, following established practice, the Serbian Progressive Party’s lists in these elections are also marked with the name of Aleksandar Vučić, even though he is not one of the candidates.

“It is a very controversial and direct violation of the constitution when someone who is not a candidate and who is, by virtue of his office, the president of all citizens appears as the leader of a list in local elections,” explains Zlatko Minić.

“He is not a candidate, he will not be mayor, nor will he hold any other office in this local community. Local candidates and party committees are thus riding on the coattails of the Serbian president and his reputation,” he adds.

In addition to Transparency Serbia, the non-governmental Office for Social Research (BIRODI) has also drawn attention to the problem of such practices.

The Office of the President of Serbia did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.

In its October resolution, the European Parliament assessed, among other things, that the elections in Serbia were marked by systemic abuses, including irregularities in the electoral register, vote buying, abuse of state resources, and pressure and intimidation of voters and public servants.

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