In Serbia, since the restoration of the multi-party system in 1990, Serbia has never had fair elections, except for a short period after the October 5th upheaval in 2000, according to the findings of the research conducted by the Centre for Political Research and Public Opinion (CPIJM) of the Institute of Social Sciences (IDN) from Belgrade.
About two-thirds of surveyed citizens do not agree with the statement that the election conditions were fair in the period 1990-1999, i.e. 47 percent do not agree at all and 17.9 percent generally do not agree. Only 2.3 percent agree with that statement and 6.6 percent somewhat agree. More than a quarter of surveyed people couldn’t decide – 19.5 percent of them do not know or cannot answer and 6.8 percent neither agree nor disagree with the statement.
The only period in recent political history that citizens rate more favourably is from 2000 to 2012. More than half of respondents agree that the election conditions were fair in that period, 14.2 percent fully agree and 36.4 percent somewhat agree. 11 percent do not agree with such an assessment at all and 13 percent generally do not agree.
The surveyed citizens see the period after 2012 as the most unfavourable for elections – only eight percent of citizens agree that the election conditions were fair, while 9.9 percent somewhat agree with that statement. On the other hand, 71.5 percent disagree with that statement.
According to the research results, almost 60 percent of citizens believe that democracy became stronger in the period from 2000 to 2012, in contrast to only 29 percent of those who think that democracy grew stronger after 2012.
17.1 percent of citizens fully agree with the statement that democracy grew strong immediately after the October 5th upheaval, while only 10.7 percent do not agree with that statement.
Democracy grew stronger despite disappointed expectations
The CPIJM assessed that the post-October 5th period was a time of high hopes and failed expectations, hence such a high percentage of the surveyed people who somewhat agree with the assessment that democracy became stronger then.
The survey participants have a completely different opinion about the period after 2012 – 71 percent of them do not agree that democracy grew stronger after that year (54.4 percent do not agree at all and 16.7 percent of them mostly disagree). Only 6 percent of citizens fully believe that democracy grew stronger in that period.
The results also showed that 27.8 percent of citizens are very interested in politics, and even 49.2 percent of citizens are quite interested. On the other hand, only 4.9 percent of citizens are completely uninterested, and quite another 18.1 percent of them. This is apparently a very small percentage of those who are not interested, considering the fact that a large number of citizens believe that they cannot influence what kind of policy the holders of power will lead, is one of the conclusions reached by the researchers.
What is the impact of voting on the situation in the country?
When respondents were asked about how voting could affect political and social events in the country, a very small number of them said that voting has no influence at all on events in the country (8.6 percent), while the absolute majority believes that voting can have a strong influence (57.5 percent). If we add to that number those who believe that voting can have a significant impact (16.9 percent), that makes 2/3 of respondents who believe that voting could have an impact on events in the country.
(N1, 22.10.2023)
Photo credits: AFP / Djordje Kojadinovic