Student List Files Diaspora Polling Objection With RIK
The list says at least 12,000 voters will cast ballots overnight and that 14 countries with enough registered voters have no polling station. The rally is at 6 p.m.
An objection to the Republic Electoral Commission’s (RIK) decisions on polling stations abroad is due today at the commission’s headquarters on Kralja Milana Street in Belgrade. It is being filed by the Student List - Students Win, which has called a rally for 6 p.m. under the name “Not Tonight.” At the time of publication there was no confirmation that the objection had been filed, and no word on how the rally went.
We reported on the announcement earlier. What is new are the figures the list builds its objection on and the statements by commission members that go with them.
Which decisions does the objection target?
Two RIK decisions are at issue. The first sets the polling stations abroad and was adopted on a proposal from the Foreign Ministry (MSP). The second orders that voting in all cities abroad be held on Serbian time.
The commission voted on the proposed polling stations on October 4, after midnight. RIK chairman Vladimir Dimitrijevic said there were 81 polling stations abroad at the previous elections and that the Foreign Ministry is now proposing 93. The snap parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 25.
In the statement announcing the rally, the list described the decisions this way:
“Regarding the shameful RIK decision on determining polling stations abroad, as well as the decision to organize voting in all cities on Serbian time, which grossly violates the law and directly endangers the voting rights of our citizens abroad, we are gathering to submit an objection,” the Student List said.
According to the announcement, list representatives will present the details of the objection in front of the building that houses RIK.
What figures does the Student List cite?
In a post on its website, the list makes the following claims:
- at least 12,000 voters will be forced to vote during the night
- 11 polling stations that operated in 2023 have not been opened this time
- in 49 cities in 29 countries the legal minimum of at least 100 interested citizens has been met, yet no polling stations were opened
- in 14 of those 29 countries there is not a single polling station
- at least 5,500 people will have to travel 200 kilometers or more to the nearest station, at least 2,600 more than 1,000 kilometers, and at least 2,800 voters will have to fly
- in 13 cities citizens found premises themselves and offered help to the Foreign Ministry, but no polling station was opened
The list gives Vancouver as an example:
“While one polling station is being opened for 117 voters, no polling station has been opened for 1,400 citizens in Vancouver, and those people have not been assigned to any other station either,” the list said in its post.
The Vancouver figure differs from the one given by the portal 021.rs, which writes of more than 1,000 registered voters. None of the texts we read contains a response from the Foreign Ministry or RIK to these claims, so for now they are the claims of one side.
What are commission members saying?
RIK member from the Student List David Krstic said on Monday that, according to the list’s information, about 10,000 voters in 12 countries are affected by the ministry’s proposal because no polling station covers them. That is an earlier and narrower count than the one the list published today. Krstic told N1:
“We asked at the session as well: where will these voters vote, because they are not covered. When the ministry makes a proposal, it states which polling station covers other cities: Paris covers Toulouse, Lyon and so on. In these cases we have no catchment area, we do not know where these people will vote.”
RIK member Dusan Dincic, according to 021.rs, said the list adopted by the commission does not match the real interest among voters in the diaspora and that, as he claims, it was drawn up deliberately to make voting as hard as possible. The same portal reports that no polling stations were opened in Vancouver, Brisbane, Perth and Miami. Some commission members say they did not get an adequate explanation from the ministry of how the list was compiled.
What else does 021.rs report?
According to the same portal, more than 100,000 citizens registered to vote abroad, which is more than three times the number at the previous elections. It also writes that, because voting follows Serbian time, voters in New Zealand would cast ballots from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time.
How much of this will appear in the objection itself will be known once the list publishes the text it filed.
