Serbian Foreign Ministry: “Student guide” for voting abroad is a malicious activity

Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday evening that the so-called “student guide” circulating on social networks for voting abroad represents a “malicious activity”, aimed at exerting “daily political pressure” during the election campaign, as the Serbian newspaper Danas reports.

According to the ministry’s statement, in order to exercise the right to vote outside Serbia, a Serbian citizen temporarily staying abroad must have a regular residential address in Serbia, be registered in the Unified Electoral Register and submit a request through the nearest diplomatic-consular representation. After that, the embassy or consulate forwards the request electronically to the relevant municipal administration, which is authorized to decide.

The deadline for submitting applications to vote abroad is October 3 at midnight, Belgrade time, the ministry stresses — but that deadline does not apply to the issuance of decisions, since processing takes time. The decision to change the polling place is taken by the municipal or city administration, after the Republic Electoral Commission has decided to open polling stations abroad.

Serbian diplomacy says the diplomatic-consular network is working every day at full capacity to process all requests — the number of decisions issued is twice as large as in the previous election cycle — and that “there is no room for spreading false stories about supposed obstacles”. The statement closes with a sharp rebuke: those who would put “the entire people on ignore” would do well to learn one of the oldest principles of the legal system — “ignorance of the law is harmful”.

The ministry’s reaction comes at a moment when the Serbian diaspora has broken registration records — 73,000 citizens have registered to vote abroad for the October 25 parliamentary elections, almost double the previous cycle.