Ahead of the announced elections, the issue of phantom voters is being raised once again, and officially this time, through the Electoral Roll Revision Commission. Commission members from the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) are requesting data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) to determine whether more than 130,000 people who obtained Serbian citizenship over the past five years and voted in previous elections actually reside in Serbia.
Between 2020 and 2025, Serbia gained exactly 133,134 new citizens – that many individuals met the highly stringent conditions required to become Serbian nationals. While this figure might sound large at first glance, it actually aligns with the average.
“The average over the last 15 years is around 22,000 – 23,000 people per year, with a slight increase between 2014 and 2022, but nothing dramatic. So the last five years fit right into that average,” explains demographer Vladimir Nikitović.
Although not everyone who gains Serbian citizenship automatically becomes a voter – such as minors – SSP members on the Electoral Roll Revision Commission suspect that phantom voters are hidden precisely among these new citizens, the majority of whom, they claim, come from Republika Srpska.
Hence, they are asking questions.
“Are they registered at addresses in Serbia, and if so, do they actually live there?” asks SSP President Dragan Đilas.
“In practice, there are undoubtedly oversights and irregularities, but whether they are the result of a targeted political campaign cannot be determined based on this data alone,” assesses demographer Nikitović.
“Do these people actually live there?”
“The request made by the SSP representatives on the commission is very straightforward, and the Commission accepted it: to provide the addresses where more than three people are registered, so we can verify if those people actually reside there. Their acquisition of citizenship is fully in accordance with the law, but your registered residence must be where you actually live,” Đilas adds.
These are the official questions submitted by Commission members to the MUP, but there has been no response. The question remains whether an answer is even possible, given that personal data is being requested.
“It is important for citizens to know that political parties do not have the right to access this data, but members of the Electoral Roll Revision Commission do. They already have access; they can log into the electoral roll right now and view people’s personal details (names, surnames, registered addresses),” says Đilas.
N1: But they don’t know if those on the list are part of these 133,000?
“Precisely. They cannot cross-reference the data, which is why it is essential for the MUP to provide the information so it can be linked and verified,” concludes the SSP president.
Opposition’s suspicions are not groundless
“The act of granting citizenship itself is a serious matter and should not be called into question, but at this point, we are entering territory that has little to do with demography as a discipline,” explains Nikitović.
It may not have much to do with demography, but it could certainly impact the elections, bringing the matter firmly into the political arena, as the opposition’s suspicions are not groundless.
Ahead of the 2023 Belgrade local elections, 52 people were registered at a single address – Prešernova 21 – 42 of whom, according to Đilas, deregistered after the election.
He also points out that approximately 150 people supposedly lived in the house of Progressive Party (SNS) official Vladimir Mandić, and today there is no doubt that all of them are featured on the list of new Serbian citizens mentioned earlier.
“All of them have registered residences in Belgrade, all of them acquired citizenship legally, but every single one of them has an illegal registered residence and broke the law when they voted,” says Đilas.
(N1, 04.08.2026)
https://n1info.rs/vesti/izbori-fantomski-133000-novih-drzavljana-srbije/