Nedeljkov (CRTA): Results in Belgrade Fail to Reflect a Free and Fair Election

CRTA (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The programme director of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), Rasa Nedeljkov, said on Dec. 18 that the conclusion his organization had reached was that given the scope and type of election rigging in Belgrade’s polls, the election “does not reflect the freely expressed will of voters” living in the capital.



Nedeljkov said to journalists in Belgrade that the CRTA observers had noted irregularities in five percent of polling stations across Serbia, and nine percent of polling stations in Belgrade, “which directly compromised the results of the elections.”

Speaking about the problems detected, Nedeljkov said that towards the end of the election day there was a clear upward trend in the number of pre-filled ballots and the illegal presence of third persons in polling stations, especially in Belgrade.



“The number of polling stations where a third person would sign the excerpt of the voter registration list instead of the actual voter tripled by the end of the day, compared to the period by midday,” Nedeljkov said. Dual records, organized groups of voters and violations of the secrecy of voting were also reported more frequently towards the end of the day.



Nedeljkov also said that explicit irregularities in favor of the ruling coalition had been recorded during the election campaign, and that state institutions had been abused continuously as a conduit to getting an unfair advantage. The CRTA programme director also said that a negative campaign had been run against political opponents, which, as he put it, erased the line between the state and a political party.