CoE Envoy to Visit Belgrade Over Serious Election Irregularities

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After the international observers noted serious irregularities during the Dec. 17 local and parliamentary elections in Serbia, the president of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Congress, Marc Cools, asked Stewart Dickson, the Congress’ spokesman for electoral matters, to visit Belgrade at the start of 2024 in order to meet with the Serbian authorities.

The main purpose of the visit will be to discuss improvements to the electoral process and the urgent reforms needed to combat any potential fraud, the CoE Congress announced on Dec. 27.

On Dec. 20, Dickson expressed concern over the serious irregularities during the parliamentary and local elections reported by the Congress’ partners in international observation mission and called on the Serbian authorities to address all alleged cases of violations of the electoral process and to investigate.

“The reported instances of intimidation and pressure on voters, including vote-buying, and credible allegations of voter migration and bussing of voters during local elections to support the ruling party particularly in Belgrade, the inclusion of names of deceased persons on electoral lists and the misuse of administrative resources in election campaigns are very worrying allegations that could seriously infringe citizens' right to vote and undermine their trust in the democratic electoral process at all levels of government,” reads the Congress’ statement from Dec. 20.

It was also stated that the simultaneous holding of early parliamentary and early local elections in a third of Serbia’s municipalities, including the capital, “following the sudden and simultaneous resignation of 65 mayors from the ruling party,” was “not conducive to an effective electoral process at local level.”