Cacak: Voter Data on 'Blocker' List, ANEM Wants Probe
ANEM warns that a list of so-called blockers is circulating in Cacak with names, addresses, phone numbers and a political label for each voter, journalists included.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) spoke out on October 5, 2026, over a list of so-called blockers that is circulating among residents of Cacak and beyond. The document is titled “Check on Blockers - Cacak” and contains personal data on voters, journalists among them, along with a label for each person’s political leaning. ANEM is asking the authorities to act urgently, saying the list breaches several laws and endangers the safety of journalists.
What is on the blockers list?
According to ANEM’s statement, the list gives voters’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, polling stations and a so-called “VDV status.” That column records whether a person is a sure vote, a party member, or an opponent. Its labels are “sure,” “member,” “undecided,” “does not vote” and “against.”
In its statement, ANEM says:
The list, which is being passed around en masse among the citizens of Cacak and beyond, contains data on alleged ‘capillary votes’ and on citizens marked on the list as ‘blockers.’
The people filed as “blockers” are mostly students, teachers, newly enfranchised citizens, opposition representatives, activists and journalists. The list also mentions people labeled “capillaries” and “main bosses.”
What does the journalist named on the list say?
Milena Gavrilovic, a journalist with the Cacak portal Epicentar Press, is on the list. She says no one contacted her, even though the contact person entered beside her name is a neighbor who, she claims, is an active member of the Serbian Progressive Party. By her account, she has never seen or heard from the man.
Gavrilovic told ANEM that the list also names, among others, those serving as canvassers and coordinators:
Directors of public enterprises and companies, members of the City Council, assistants to the mayor, and employees of the Center for Social Work are listed on this document as canvassers and coordinators, along with persons marked as ‘capillaries’ and ‘main bosses.’
Her verdict is unequivocal. “This is a huge scandal. Nobody contacted me, and my data has been abused,” Gavrilovic said, according to ANEM’s statement. She also pointed to a detail that, in her words, makes the list unreliable: “Entire families are on that list, and it says they declared themselves against in the same minute and the same second, which is simply impossible.”
She closed by describing the mood in the city: “People in Cacak have been targeted, and they feel both angry and frightened.”
A similar case in Zajecar a year and a half earlier
ANEM recalls a similar case after the local elections in Zajecar in June 2025. Opposition representatives said at the time that they had found a sack of voter lists in a dumpster, which they claimed had been thrown away by a Serbian Progressive Party official.
Criminal complaints were filed, but according to Miljko Stojanovic, a journalist with Glas Zajecara, the prosecutor’s office in Nis dismissed the complaint. Stojanovic says the list “looked like a modified voter register” and that he and his friends were on it. He also said that people were offered 3,000 dinars for a vote, as well as parcels and goods, from white goods to food packages.
What does ANEM ask of the authorities?
ANEM warns that publishing and sharing such lists raises serious questions about the unlawful collection, processing and use of personal data, as well as the political profiling of citizens. It is particularly concerned that journalists and young people who have only just gained the right to vote are among those marked.
The association demands that the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the competent prosecutor’s office and other institutions establish:
- who compiled the lists,
- what sources the personal data came from,
- who processed and shared it,
- whether databases held by public institutions were used.
Because journalists are on the list, ANEM adds:
Recording journalists according to their presumed political views, or whether they support a particular electoral list, may constitute an additional form of pressure and intimidation of journalists and have a serious effect on their work.
The excerpts from the statement available do not say how many names are on the list, and there has been no response from the Serbian Progressive Party or the city authorities to the claims about coordinators and canvassers. Who compiled the list has not been established so far.
