Record diaspora registrations for Serbian elections: around 55,000 so far, number could double

Around 55,000 voters from the diaspora had registered by Tuesday, September 29, to vote in the Serbian elections of October 25, according to opposition data reported by Danas based on DW’s reporting. These are only positively approved applications — none has been rejected so far.

The figures come from Marko Dimić, a member of the Commission for the revision of the electoral roll on behalf of the Party of Freedom and Justice. The registration deadline expires on Saturday, October 3, at midnight, and commission members estimate the number could reach up to 80,000 — a figure which, as Danas stresses, would be “spectacular”, given that in the December 2023 parliamentary elections 39,270 voters from abroad registered and 31,552 voted.

The distribution: most registrants come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, second by a wide margin Germany, followed by Austria, the USA, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and Montenegro. If registrations reach the forecast, the diaspora could have more voters than the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians had in Serbia in the last elections — 65,000 votes, which gave it 6 seats — so, as DW notes, even a relatively small number of votes could be decisive this time.

Voter groups say they have collected enough applications to open four new polling stations in Germany — in Cologne, Hanover, Nuremberg and Karlsruhe. Under the rules, a polling station is mandatorily opened only with at least 100 registered voters; otherwise the Republic Electoral Commission decides. Meanwhile there are complaints about the consulates: people write to them to register but receive no confirmation, which has raised suspicions of obstruction. The Kreni-Promeni movement claims that the secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dušan Kozarev (SNS), gave a “verbal instruction” to sabotage the opening of polling stations especially in Germany and the USA — an accusation Foreign Minister Marko Đurić dismissed as “needlessly stirring unrest in the diaspora”.

The historical context: in 2023 Vučić’s list took 56.41% of the diaspora vote against 48.07% overall; in Germany — in Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt — the “Serbia Against Violence” list won convincingly. The human face of this mobilisation is also Jelena Radivojčević, a “headhunter” in Frankfurt for three decades, who is campaigning in the “Frankfurt for the Students” group and in the ukljucise.info initiative, where Serbs abroad can read how to check the electoral roll and how to register.