ODIHR Mission Interim Report: Election in Context of Political Crisis, Polarization

Presidential and parliamentary elections in North Macedonia, May 8 2024 (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

Early parliamentary elections in Serbia called for Oct. 25 are taking place in the context of years of political crisis and the increasingly deeper polarization of Serbian society, which is reflecting more and more on the functioning of state institutions, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has said.

In an interim report covering the period between Sept. 16 and Oct. 7, the ODIHR Election Observation Mission said the university student-led protests, which began after 16 people died in the collapse of a concrete overhang at the Novi Sad main railway station in November 2024, have grown into a political movement and become one of the main contenders in the upcoming election. The report notes that "the electoral legal framework underwent several significant amendments in 2025 and 2026, some of which addressed prior ODIHR recommendations in whole or in part."

"While some ODIHR [Election Observation Mission] interlocutors welcomed the changes, several raised concerns about the inclusiveness and effectiveness of the consultation process, the adoption of some amendments close to the elections, and their implementation in good faith," the report states. Several earlier ODIHR recommendations, including high priority ones, remain unfulfilled, "notably concerning voter intimidation and pressure, sanctions and oversight for campaign or finance violations, certain aspects of the misuse of state resources, the independence and effective oversight of the media regulator, the safety of journalists and restrictions on voting rights."

The report further reads that many interlocutors of the ODIHR mission "raised concerns about disinformation and manipulative online content, spread and amplified in particular by mainstream outlets and public officials, while no inter-agency mechanism is in place for the elections to publicly co-ordinate responses to online disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference."