Voter registry discrepancies flagged ahead of Serbian elections

Members of the Commission for the revision, verification, and control of the voter registry have raised concerns regarding significant discrepancies between population counts and the number of registered voters ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.

Ognjen Rašuo, a member of the commission from the Green-Left Front, identified 42 municipalities where the number of registered voters exceeds the population recorded in the last census. Mali Zvornik was noted as having the highest discrepancy. Rašuo suggested that many individuals from Republika Srpska may be registering fictitious residences to obtain documents.

Commission member Ana Gođevac stated that while the state possesses the necessary data, authorities are not allowing the commission to examine or resolve these suspicious cases. While some increase in voter numbers is attributed to minors reaching legal voting age by election day, commission members are monitoring suspicious patterns, such as multiple people registering at the same address on the same day to vote from abroad.

Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government's failure to release data for six municipalities in Kosovo, which contain a total of 248,000 voters. These lists have reportedly not been properly updated since 1999.