Belgrade, Serbia—International observers at Serbia’s Sunday municipal election said they saw violence and irregularities during the vote, even as President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party declared victory in all 10 municipalities.
In a statement, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe said its delegation observed procedures inside polling stations that were “often largely in line with provisions,” but it was alarmed by what observers said they witnessed outside the premises. The group said it saw acts of violence outside polling locations and, in all but one of the municipalities it visited, heated arguments and the threatening presence of large groups of people, “often unidentified and sometimes masked.”
The Council of Europe congress monitors also warned about what they described as election conduct that undermined secrecy and voters’ ability to exercise their democratic right without pressure. They said “Violence and coercion are unacceptable barriers to the free expression of the will of all voters,” adding that “No voter should feel threatened when exercising his or her democratic right.”
In addition to the intimidation concerns, the monitors said they recorded irregularities including breaches of voting secrecy and voters taking photos of their ballot papers. They called those irregularities “highly worrying,” and said the preelection campaign had been “highly polarized,” with an emphasis on national priorities and actors.
Serbia held the local election in 10 towns across the country, and it was viewed by observers as a test for Vucic after more than a year of youth-led street protests that shook his grip on power. The protests began in November 2024 following a train station tragedy in the country’s north, and the election is being discussed against that backdrop of political tension and public discontent.
Vucic said his party won in all 10 municipalities, and the Serbian president led the campaign himself. Some student activists and observers, according to the report, said they were attacked by Vucic’s supporters, including some people they described as masked, while Vucic and his party accused the other side of provoking incidents.
The report also cited independent Serbian monitors reporting scores of violent incidents and clashes during the election, alongside voting irregularities in some towns. Videos from the scene were cited as showing clashes and, in one town, a man with a gun.
The independent Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) said the election could not be considered free. The organization said the vote “can hardly be called an election,” alleging violations of voting secrecy and organized voting, as well as repeated scuffles that included employees of state institutions, with several people injured and police in riot gear deployed in some towns.
CRTA’s Jovana Djurbabic told The Associated Press that the overall environment was marked by “high intensity of tensions, violence, pressures,” and she said: “I would not call these elections free, they are not free at all.”
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said Monday he was canceling an annual regional meeting planned for May. His office said hosting Vucic in Croatia was impossible after what it described as Vucic’s recent comments, saying the president’s “political statements and actions … inflict damage on relations between the states and jeopardize peace and stability in southeastern Europe.”
The two countries’ relations have been strained since the 1991-95 war in the former Yugoslavia, during which Belgrade backed a Croatian Serb rebellion against Croatia’s independence. Vucic has faced ongoing accusations of curbing democratic freedoms since he came to power more than a decade ago, and although Serbia has sought EU entry, the process has stalled as Serbia maintains ties with Russia and China. Both presidential and parliamentary elections are expected later this year or next year.