European Serbia Coalition: Diaspora’s Voting Rights Undermined

Ivana Rapajic Moran Photo: European Serbia Coalition

The oppositional European Serbia ticket – comprising the Serbian Center (SRCE) party, the Freedom and Justice Party and the Solidarity citizens’ movement – warned on Oct. 14 that the ongoing election process has demonstrated that voting abroad is awkward and inequitable for Serbia’s expats.

“People living abroad have the same constitutionally guaranteed right to vote as any other Serbian citizen, regardless of where they are located. If we have three people in the Philippines, they have the same right to vote as anyone in Serbia,” Ivana Rapajic Moran told EuroNews Serbia TV.

Rapajic Moran went on to stress that over 100,000 expats have registered to vote and are now fighting the system to ensure this right because the government is not offering enough polling stations abroad, European Serbia reported in its press release.

Compared to the 2023 general elections, some polling stations have been closed while others were not offered despite enough local expats having registered to vote, the politician explained.

“Is it possible that this regime is so afraid of the 291 people registered in New Zealand, that [the opposition] will win that polling station and that New Zealand will be the first declare victory [and] will then affect all other polling stations?” asked Rapajic Moran, who is also the committee head of the SRCE Center for diaspora.