Brnabic Invites EP to Send Observer Mission to Follow Election

Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian National Assembly Speaker and acting president Ana Brnabic has invited the European Parliament to send an observer mission to follow early parliamentary election in Serbia on Oct. 25.

Djordje Bojovic, who deals with Western Balkan affairs in the EP, reported Brnabic's invitation in an Oct. 10 post on the X social media network. "The invitation is here! At the very last minute Ana Brnabic decided to send an invitation to the European Parliament to observe the election after all. The EP is ready to send a full mission of seven Europarliamentarians, who will arrive on Thursday, Oct. 22," Bojovic said in the post.

The invitation was made after warnings over the past several days that the EP has not received the necessary official invitation from the Serbian authorities, even though sending a delegation of seven MEPs was already approved. The deadline for organizing the mission expired on Oct. 8. Radio Free Europe reported on Oct. 9 that no invitation was sent before then, bringing into question the delegation's arrival. The job of EP observers is to monitor the election process, meet with the representatives of electoral institutions, political stakeholders, civil society and media, and on election day follow the opening of polling places, voting and counting at selected locations. Their observations contribute to the international evaluation of the election process.

At the same time, ODIHR has already deployed its observer mission for the Oct. 25 election. According to the organization, the mission includes a basic team of 14 experts, 30 long-term observers and the planned engagement of 300 observers on election day.