Nedeljkov: Vote for Belgrade City Assembly Not Free and Fair

Rasa Nedeljkov (Beta/Media center)

Rasa Nedeljkov, program director of an observation mission appointed by the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), said on June 3 that the vote for Belgrade’s parliament "cannot be considered free and fair."

"Nearly 20,000 fewer voters turned out on June 2, compared to December, and despite the overwhelming majority upon which Belgrade’s new government will be formed, its legitimacy will be questionable, having arisen from an electoral process that was far below any democratic election standard," Nedeljkov said at a press conference in Belgrade.

The CRTA leader also said that 1,500 observers from his organization gathered information and evidence as the Election Day proceeded on June 2, and that the police were notified of eight cases of suspected vote-buying and carousel voting (Bulgarian train) more than in any previous elections.

CRTA's preliminary analysis shows that the voting results are compromised at nine percent of polling stations in Belgrade.

"Even though the events at these locations cannot call into question the victory of the strongest ticket, due to the prevalence and nature of the recorded mechanisms used to control the will of voters on the Election Day, coupled with the compromised voter list, the elections cannot be considered free and fair," he said.

At 33 percent of polling stations, breaches of voting secrecy were recorded, predominantly the photographing of ballot papers in voting booths. Keeping parallel records within polling stations was observed at eight percent of polling stations, whereas voters did not vote in persons at 14 percent of polling stations.

Pavle Dimitrijevic, heading the CRTA legal team, said that their observers had also noticed vehicles circulating around polling stations throughout the day, gatherings outside polling stations, as well as logistics and call centers at multiple locations in Belgrade.