The Serbian government announced that it has sent a proposal to the President of Serbia to dissolve the Assembly and call for parliamentary elections. According to Radio Free Europe, the election date is known, but the exact costs of the early election are not.
The citizens of Serbia will elect new MPs for the second time in two years. On the same day, elections for new provincial leadership will take place, along with local elections in Belgrade and 70 other towns and municipalities across Serbia.
The government will allocate from the state budget funds for political parties which are taking part in the election and there is also a considerable cost of printing the ballots and per diems for people who will work at local poll stations. At the last election, these per diems were 2,000 dinars per person.
Exactly how much all of this will cost is a big unknown at the moment.
The watchdog organization Transparency Serbia estimates that the state will allocate at least 25 million euros to finance the election campaign and elections.
“Furthermore, there are also costs that are not visible and these are most often used illegally, in campaigns. Actually, these costs may be higher than the legal ones”, says Nemanja Nenadic from Transparency Serbia.
Invisible campaign costs
The 2023 state budget does not envisage financing the elections, because they were not planned for this year.
That cost will be decided later by the state treasury and the money will probably come from the budget reserve when the election process officially begins.
According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, he is due to officially call elections this week.
And in the weeks before the start of the campaign, the president also announced one-time financial for more than 1.6 million pensioners in Serbia, in the amount of 20,000 dinars (170 euros) per pensioner, as well as 10,000 dinars for each person on welfare, which is an additional burden on the state budget.
(Vreme, 31.10.2023)
https://www.vreme.com/vesti/koliko-ce-nas-kostati-vanredni-izbori/