The Electoral Commission’s Recipe for the Diaspora: Thousands of Kilometres to Reach a Polling Station, and Voting Through the Night

Although the number of voters registered abroad for the upcoming parliamentary elections is almost three times higher than at the previous elections, the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) adopted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ proposal to open only 12 more polling stations than in 2023.

Voting will therefore take place at 93 polling stations, despite the fact that the number of registered voters abroad has exceeded 100,000, according to the latest figures. By comparison, 39,270 voters registered to vote abroad in the December 2023 elections, when 81 polling stations were opened.

This was one of several controversial decisions made during a contentious RIK meeting that lasted several hours and ended at around 2 a.m. on 5 October. Some Commission members who criticised the decision argued that the voting rights of large numbers of Serbian citizens living abroad would be jeopardised. They also said that the relevant ministry had failed to provide an adequate explanation of how the list of polling stations had been compiled.

RIK member Ivan Šebek said during the meeting that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government had failed to provide Commission members with information necessary for their work, despite being legally obliged to do so. According to Šebek, he had not received figures showing how many citizens had registered to vote in each individual city and country abroad.

“We still do not know how many Serbian citizens registered to vote in each city and each country. What we do know is that, compared with the 2023 elections, the current proposal does not include polling stations in Geneva and Lugano in Switzerland, or Vancouver in Canada. These are all cities where polling stations were designated in the previous elections. Bucharest, Bratislava, Sofia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates are also missing,” Šebek said.

He added that he had been informed that no request had been submitted to open polling stations outside diplomatic consulates or missions in Germany.

 

 

Polling Stations Hundreds or Even Thousands of Kilometres Away

David Krstić, a deputy member of RIK, said during the meeting that the proposal could amount to discrimination against citizens and a violation of the Constitution. He added that the increase in the number of polling stations compared with the previous elections was merely “cosmetic”.

According to Krstić, the number of polling stations and voters had increased in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where 11 new polling stations were opened and the number of voters rose from 13,000 to 19,000. The situation was different in other countries, despite the existence of a legal minimum of 100 registered voters for opening a polling station.

In Australia, for example, Melbourne was designated as a polling location, while Perth and Brisbane were excluded, even though they are 2,700 and 1,350 kilometres away from Melbourne, respectively.

“In Austria, the cities of Graz and Innsbruck are not covered by any polling station under the ministry’s proposal. According to our information, there are nearly 300 registered voters there. The distances are not as great as in Australia, but they are still considerable,” Krstić said.

He noted that there would no longer be a polling station in Sofia, even though one had been available in the previous elections. Vancouver was a particularly concerning case, he added, because it had also been a polling location in the previous elections.

“Vancouver, if I am not mistaken, is not covered by any polling station in this revised proposal. According to our information, nearly 1,300 Serbian citizens have registered to vote there,” he stressed. He added that the situation was similar in Calgary, which is 2,880 kilometres from the designated polling station.

According to Krstić, the situation was similar in France. Although the legal minimum of 100 registered voters had been met, there would be no polling stations in Nice, Lyon or Toulouse. Instead, voters would have to cast their ballots in Paris, hundreds of kilometres away.

In Germany, only two polling stations had been opened, even though the number of registered voters had risen from 6,300 to 15,000, he pointed out. Nuremberg, Hanover and Cologne were not covered by any polling station, raising the question of where those citizens would vote — in Germany or in Serbia, at their registered place of residence, Krstić asked.

The Electoral Commission’s Recipe for the Diaspora: Thousands of Kilometres to Reach a Polling Station, and Voting Through the Night 1
Photo: Istinomer/Zoran Drekalović
He also cited Thessaloniki as an example. Serbia has a consulate there, and the minimum requirement for opening a polling station has been met. Nevertheless, Serbian citizens living in the city will have to travel to Athens to vote.

“Thessaloniki, in Greece, is 500 kilometres from the designated polling station. Again, we have the minimum requirement that the Ministry itself considered necessary — more than 100 registered voters — and there is a consulate in Thessaloniki. So why was a polling station not designated at the consulate, when ministry representatives themselves said at meetings that it was very difficult to establish polling stations outside consulates?” Krstić asked.

Although more than 100 voters had registered and Serbian citizens had even found a venue for voting, no polling station would be opened in Iceland. Voters would instead have to travel to Oslo, 1,800 kilometres away.

In Italy, 1,440 voters registered for the 2023 elections, and five polling stations were available. Although the number of registered voters has now risen to 3,719, only three polling stations will open — in Rome, Milan and Trieste — leaving other locations in the country without a designated polling station.

Herceg Novi, where Serbia has a consulate and where a polling station had always been available, will no longer have one. In Romania, despite Serbia having an embassy in Bucharest and a consulate in Timișoara, no polling stations will be opened in either city. A polling station had been available in Bucharest in the 2023 elections.

Qatar has a Serbian embassy in Doha and more than 100 registered voters, yet no polling station will be opened there. Krstić explained that the nearest polling station would be in Nicosia, approximately 2,000 kilometres away in a straight line.

There will also be no polling station in Slovakia, despite approximately 400 registered voters and the existence of a polling station in Bratislava in the previous elections.

Spain will have two polling stations in Madrid, but the authorities have not taken into account the wishes of citizens who want to vote in Barcelona, where around 200 voters have registered. The distance between Madrid and Barcelona is 620 kilometres, he noted.

In Switzerland, Geneva, Lugano and Basel have not been designated as polling locations. Krstić said the reason for the decision was unknown, even though Serbian citizens had found suitable premises for voting.

In the United States, according to Krstić, a new polling station has been opened in Los Angeles, but voters from Houston have been reassigned there, even though Chicago or Washington would be closer to them. Meanwhile, 321 voters in Miami will not be able to vote in their city, despite being approximately 1,500 kilometres from the designated polling stations.

 

The Diaspora Will Also Be Voting at Night

 

The Republic Electoral Commission also adopted a decision setting the opening and closing times of polling stations abroad. Under the decision, polling stations will operate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central European Time.

For example, voting in New Zealand would begin at 7 p.m. local time and continue until 8 a.m. the following morning.

Some RIK members described the decision as “illegal”, “a precedent”, “uncivilised and indefensible”, “an abuse” or “legal violence”. They argued that its sole purpose was to make it more difficult for the diaspora to exercise its right to vote.

While Šebek said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had exceeded its authority with the proposed decision, Krstić rejected the ministry’s argument that the possible early publication of results from individual polling stations abroad could jeopardise the electoral process in Serbia.

Vladimir Erceg, a deputy member of the Commission for the Revision of the Voter Register and a representative of CRTA, told Istinomer that, in addition to approving a controversial list of polling stations, RIK had also endorsed the ministry’s second proposal: that all polling stations abroad operate according to Serbian time, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“This abandons a practice that RIK had consistently followed in every election since 2016. A large number of voters in the diaspora will be forced to vote during the night or in the early hours of the morning, inevitably affecting the ability of many citizens to exercise their voting rights.

“The implications of this decision were clear to all RIK members, yet the majority accepted the proposal. Rejecting it would not have jeopardised voting abroad, but it would have sent a clear message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the voting schedule should be adjusted to the established practice,” Erceg explained.

Asked why polling stations would not be opened in locations where the legal minimum number of registered voters had been reached, as well as in cities that had polling stations in previous elections, Erceg said the question should be addressed to the political decision-makers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“When we examine the locations selected for voting abroad, we see patterns that can only be explained as political manipulation,” he said.

“Any remaining doubts are dispelled by the glaring absence of even a single rational explanation for why numerous locations with Serbian embassies and consulates, where polling stations have always been opened, will remain closed this time — despite unprecedented interest among Serbian citizens abroad.

“Polling stations that have traditionally operated in Herceg Novi, Bratislava, Sofia, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Geneva and Vancouver will remain closed. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, nine additional polling stations will be opened alongside the 18 that operated in 2023,” Erceg stressed.

According to the information available to the Commission for the Revision of the Voter Register, 106,306 applications to vote abroad had been registered by the deadline, and 105,662 positive decisions had been issued approving voting based on voters’ places of residence abroad.

“RIK’s decision on the designation of polling stations abroad states that 83,523 voters have been assigned to 93 polling stations. Unfortunately, the available data lack one crucial piece of information: the country from which each application was submitted and the polling location requested by each voter.

“As a result, we cannot identify which 22,139 voters have been left without the opportunity to vote abroad based on their place of residence. We also do not know whether some voters have automatically been reassigned to other polling stations in the country where they registered or in a third country. Nor do we know whether voters whose applications to vote abroad were approved automatically revert to their original polling stations at their registered places of residence in Serbia.”

Erceg said that the Commission for the Revision of the Voter Register had sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, requesting an urgent response on these matters and access to all information concerning voters who had registered to vote from abroad.