Serbia Election Silence Starts at Midnight on Oct. 22

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) set the end of the day on October 19 as the deadline to deliver voting notices to voters in the snap parliamentary elections on October 25. The deadline for sending election materials to polling boards abroad expires the same day. It is the first in a series of deadlines covering the last six days before the vote.

What happens between now and election day?

RIK published its schedule of election activities in mid-September. Commission chairman Vladimir Dimitrijevic explained to commission members what the schedule rests on:

“They were set in accordance with the decision calling the elections, the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament and the Single Voter Register.”

The schedule sets these dates:

• October 20: local election commissions must receive their election materials
• October 21, midnight: last day for requests to register in or change entries in the voter register, which have been filed with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government since October 10
• October 22, midnight: the ministry must forward those requests to RIK
• October 23, midnight: election materials must reach the polling boards

When does election silence begin?

Election silence begins at midnight on October 22, meaning between Thursday and Friday, and lasts until 8 p.m. on October 25, when the polling stations close. Midnight on October 22 is the end of Thursday, so the first day of silence is Friday, October 23.

From October 22 until 11 a.m. on October 25, a voter who cannot get to a polling station because of serious illness, old age or disability can tell the local election commission that they want to vote outside the polling station. On election day, between 7 and 11 a.m., the polling board informs the commission of those requests.

Voting and results

Polling stations are open on October 25 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The ballots are purple and the control sheet is white. RIK members chose the color unanimously from three options: purple, apricot and kiwi.

After the vote, the materials go back to the local election commission by 8 a.m. on October 26, and list submitters and candidates can inspect them until midnight on October 30. RIK determines the summary report on the results within 96 hours of the polling stations closing. The overall report is published in the Official Gazette within 96 hours of receiving all summary reports, and seats are allocated within ten days of that publication.

Dimitrijevic also spoke about election observers, for whom special application forms have been adopted:

“We have forms for both domestic and foreign applications, that is, the list of domestic observer representatives who apply for accreditation, ever since the 2022 law. Both domestic and foreign observers have been given the widest possible right to unlimited presence at every election, at all polling stations across Serbia.”

The deadline for international observers to apply expired on October 14, and for domestic observers on October 17.