Brussels – With just a few days to go before the parliamentary elections on 25 October, Serbian civil society organisations are sounding the alarm: Serbia is heading into the vote “without the necessary conditions for free and fair elections.” This is stated in a joint declaration issued on 18 October by more than twenty organisations, including Civic Initiatives, the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Transparency Serbia, SHARE Foundation, the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy and the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
According to the signatories, this assessment is not based on “isolated incidents” or political differences with the government, but on documented findings by independent organisations working in the fields of election monitoring, civil liberties, the fight against corruption, digital rights and media freedom, as well as on the assessments of the ODIHR and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The picture painted includes structural advantages linked to the exercise of public power, the political use of resources and positions of authority, a significant distortion of information, pressure, intimidation, arrests and attacks against citizens, activists, journalists, and observers, and institutions unable to provide timely protection. These are problems which, they emphasise, are “cumulative” and “reinforce one another.”
The document refers to monitoring carried out by CRTA, which has identified pressure, violence, misuse of public resources, and media imbalances; by Transparency Serbia, which states that the “campaign by officials” continues despite recent legislative changes; and by the SHARE Foundation, which has identified coordinated online manipulation and campaigns to discredit observers. International observers also concur: the ODIHR’s interim report of 9 October highlights already known concerns, while on 14 October the pre-election delegation from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly spoke of a “highly polarised environment” that could undermine a level playing field for the candidates.
On 13 October, the EU delegation in Belgrade had pointed out that free, fair, and transparent elections are necessary to meet the democratic criteria on the path to accession. But for organisations, “simply setting out these standards is no longer enough”: Europe “is not in the dark” and there is a lack of “a response proportionate to the evidence.” No one is asking to choose the government, they point out: “Who governs Serbia must be decided by the citizens,” while it is up to the EU and its partners to safeguard the conditions for doing so freely.
There are eight demands to be implemented by 25 October. Among the main ones: publicly acknowledging that the conditions for a free vote have not been met and that further arrests of activists without legal grounds would compromise its integrity, reminding the authorities of their responsibility to prevent violence during and after the vote, calling for an end to intimidation and smear campaigns, defending the independence and security of the CRTA – the only national observer body capable of independently verifying the vote count – and ensuring a strong international presence at polling stations. Finally, make progress towards accession and the associated political and financial benefits conditional upon compliance with democratic standards.
The appeal concludes with a warning about the credibility of European politics: “Silence in the face of documented violations is itself a political choice,” and there are times when “caution becomes tacit approval.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
