RIK Sets Overseas Polling Hours for Oct. 25 Elections, Overnight Voting Planned

BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV

The Serbian Electoral Commission adopted a decision on Oct. 5 setting the opening and closing times for polling stations to be opened abroad on Oct. 25, when Serbia’s snap parliamentary election is taking place. They will be open at the same time as those in Serbia, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central European Time.

This means that some polling stations in the Americas, Australia and Indonesia will operate during nighttime hours, prompting some commission members to say that voting there will be in fact  impossible.

Critics of the decision in the Commission said its sole purpose was to make it more difficult for expatriates to exercise their right to vote, and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which initiated the idea, to explain why it had put forward such an arrangement.

They described the decision as "illegal," "unprecedented," "uncivilized and indefensible," pointing out that it effectively cut in half the time available to expatriates to exercise their right to vote and that organizing voting during the night placed citizens in an unsafe situation.

Some Commission members also criticized the decision to accept the Ministry's proposal to open 93 polling stations abroad, arguing that more polling stations were needed because several times more citizens had registered to vote than in previous years.

The president of the Commission, Vladimir Dimitrijevic, said there had been 81 polling stations abroad in the previous elections and that the larger number of registered voters "does not necessarily imply that the number of polling stations abroad should also be increased proportionally."