Elections in Serbia (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)
The Kareja Corruption Research Institute said in a press release on March 25 that its monitoring had uncovered large-scale new domicile registration in the municipalities where elections are to be held on March 29.
"Such occurrences indicate organized attempts to register domicile without any actual intention of residing in the area, but rather solely for the purpose of influencing election outcomes -- so-called phantom voters," the press release read.
The statement further read that such patterns were a recognizable signal that urgent action was needed from the responsible institutions. "According to Article 3, Paragraph 2, of the Law on domicile and residence, a domicile is a place where a citizen has settled with the intention of residing there permanently, that is, the center of their life activities. If there is no such intention, the registration is not a lawful one, but a potential abuse," the Institute's statement read further.
The statement went on to cite the Law that, at the direction of a court or the request of another interested party, the Interior Ministry must verify whether the person actually resides at the registered address and flag the address as non-current if any irregularities are discovered. The Institute called on citizens to report any information or suspicions of any irregularities related to domicile registration or the election process more broadly by emailing nvo.kareja@gmail.com. Local elections are to be held in Arandjelovac, Bajina Basta, Bor, Kladovo, Knjazevac, Kula, Lucani, Majdanpek, Sevojno i Smederevska Palanka on March 29.
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