The very fact that Serbia has a Commission for the Audit of the Voter Register may indicate that the situation is far from ideal. The Commission has ten members – five nominated by the authorities, three opposition representatives and two members of civil society – and is authorised to check data, compare records and propose systemic changes.
However, its work got off to a troubled start, marked by delays in publishing the public version of the register and the failure to adopt a work plan. For example, the local elections in March were held without the audit having been completed. Ognjen Rašuo, a member of the Commission for the Audit of the Voter Register and a lawyer with the ZLF, spoke to 3D about the voter register and why it is important for citizens to go to the polls without disputes over this important element of the electoral process.
Asked what kind of voter register citizens are going to the polls with, Ognjen Rašuo, a member of the Commission for the Audit of the Voter Register, says that they are going to the polls with a very disorderly register which, as he puts it, is “a reflection of the general laxity in our basic records”.
“That is indeed the most difficult question. It is very disorderly, but our voter register is simply a reflection of the laxity that exists in all our basic records,” Rašuo says.
Asked which irregularities he would particularly single out when it comes to the voter register, Rašuo points to the large number of citizens registered at fictitious addresses.
“First and foremost, we have a large number of people registered at fictitious addresses. That may not be so important for the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, but it is extremely important for local elections. Quite simply, a huge number of people register at the same addresses for various reasons. They are not necessarily doing so with malicious intent, but there are cases that are clearly designed to manipulate the electoral will of citizens,” the Commission member explains.
Asked how it is possible for fictitious addresses not to have a major impact on parliamentary and presidential elections as well, Rašuo explains that, at the national level, the whole of Serbia is a single electoral district.
“Because at national level the electoral system is such that the whole of Serbia is one electoral district, and all those people have the right to vote anyway. So only if someone was unlawfully or deliberately giving them citizenships with the intention of manipulating the election result could we speak of manipulating the electoral will of citizens,” the Insajder interviewee believes.
Asked whether examining the voter register had revealed that citizenships were being granted for the purpose of potential electoral engineering, Rašuo says that this cannot be established simply by examining the register, but that the competent authorities had provided them with data showing that 130,000 people had acquired Serbian citizenship since 2020.
“This cannot be established by examining the voter register, but we established it in other ways. We asked the competent authorities, and they told us that over the past five years or so, since 2020, 130,000 people have acquired citizenship of the Republic of Serbia,” he recalls.
Asked what the figure of 130,000 new citizens tells us, Rašuo briefly stresses that it points to a tendency to manipulate the electoral will.
“That there is a tendency to manipulate the electoral will of citizens,” Rašuo says emphatically.
Responding to the counterargument that most citizenships were granted in the early 2000s, Rašuo, who himself obtained citizenship at that time as a refugee from Knin, says that the argument does not hold because the citizenships were then being granted to people who had been left without their homes and countries.
“I obtained Serbian citizenship in the early 2000s because I had fled Knin. Their response simply does not hold water, because the people who were granted citizenship at that time were refugees who had been left without their houses, their homes, their countries, their friends, their families and everything else, and they had to live somewhere. Serbia is our homeland and it gave us citizenship, which is absolutely normal. I think it is a disgrace that it did not give us citizenship as early as 1995 and afterwards,” the Insajder interviewee says.
Asked what kind of elections can be held if the audit of the voter register has not been completed and irregularities exist, Rašuo stresses that elections can be fair if the people conducting them are fair and competent.
“Elections can be good and fair even with the worst voter register and the worst controls and everything else, if the people conducting those elections are fair and good. If they are not fair and want to manipulate things, they will easily find a way to manipulate even with the best voter register and all the other means needed to conduct the vote,” the Commission member explains.
An illogical increase in the register despite negative demographics
Asked what he notices in the daily changes to the voter register, Rašuo says that the register is growing slightly.
“We have noticed that the voter register is growing slightly. That is very unusual, given two things. First, Serbia’s demographics are such that we have fewer and fewer inhabitants. Second, all those who will reach the age of 18 on election day were already added to the register at the beginning, two weeks ago, I think. So at this point we should actually be seeing a significant decline, because there are no new voters being added on the basis of reaching adulthood. However, that is not the case. We have seen a slight decline today and yesterday, but what is happening simply deviates slightly from the trend we would expect,” Rašuo stresses.
Asked how to explain to citizens a situation in which the voter register is increasing every day even though the addition of future adult voters has already been completed, Rašuo says there are several reasons, such as citizens who previously lived abroad re-registering their residence or people acquiring citizenship.
“There are several reasons. One is that people who had previously deregistered their residence when they moved abroad are now registering their residence again and being added to the voter register once more. There are also people acquiring citizenship, but I assume that the largest number are those re-registering their residence so that they can vote,” he says.
Asked whether this suggests some kind of irregularity, Rašuo says that anyone who intended to commit an irregularity involving the voter register would have done so much earlier.
“No. If someone intended to commit an irregularity involving the voter register, they would have done it much earlier,” the interviewee explains.
Asked what specifically raises the greatest suspicion about the increase, Rašuo says that the key problem is the lack of transparent data about who these people are.
“As I said, we do not have transparent data on who these people are. We do not receive the data in that form; we cannot even distinguish in the programme we have whether people have acquired citizenship or whether they are people registering because they have changed their place of residence. It is all in one place. And what we see in the end is simply a number that is increasing. Why it is not transparent, I do not know. That lack of transparency itself is a problem for us,” Rašuo stresses.
Limited access for the Commission and obstruction by state authorities
Asked what the Commission has actually checked so far and which data it has been able to access, Rašuo explains that they have access to only two registers – the voter register and the register of decisions by municipality – while other databases have to be searched manually.
“We have access to only two registers in the way we need it. That is the voter register and the register of decisions by municipality. We have not been given anything else that we need. We can use the residence records by JMBG (personal identification number), but we have to enter each citizen individually: the birth register, death register, marriage register and citizenship register. That is what we have. Another thing we have done is a project taken over by the Office for IT. It was a kind of compromise, because they did not want to give us the databases we need, so they allowed the Office for IT to carry out the comparison of all these databases. It did so as part of a pilot project and was supposed to complete the first comparison of all the databases in Serbia by last week. However, they have not done so yet,” the Commission member says in detail.
Asked what will be submitted to the Serbian Parliament on 28 October in the Commission’s report, Rašuo says the report will state that the audit could not be completed because of obstruction and the failure of ministries to provide data.
“We will submit our report, which will say that we were unable to complete the audit for this and that reason. Because the ministry did not provide us with all the necessary databases, because the Ministry of the Interior is two months late in providing the data we request from them, and for many other reasons that will be listed there,” the Insajder interviewee notes.
Asked about cooperation within the Commission with members representing the authorities and state institutions, Rašuo says that cooperation was worst with representatives of the ministries and alleges that a representative of the Ministry of Public Administration openly lied to them.
“Let’s say that the worst cooperation was with the representatives of the ministries. Since representatives of the ministries also sit on the Commission with us, particularly the representative of the Ministry of Public Administration, that man openly lied to us,” Rašuo explains.
Asked to clarify the allegation, Rašuo says that the ministry representative openly stated at a Commission meeting that the ministry did not keep records.
“It was about the fact that the state, that the ministry does not keep records. The man openly said at the Commission meeting: ‘The ministry does not keep records,’” Rašuo says.
Asked how he explains such a statement by the ministry representative, Rašuo says it was simply demagoguery intended to confuse the Commission and obstruct its work.
“In his simple demagoguery to confuse the Commission, to delay things, whatever. Quite simply, to prevent us from doing our job,” the Commission member claims.
Asked whether that describes the general level of cooperation within the Commission, Rašuo explains that the necessary bylaws were adopted, but that cooperation did not progress much beyond that, and that adopting the report will be the key moment.
“Well, within the Commission itself, we eventually adopted the bylaws that we were supposed to adopt, but cooperation did not progress much further than that. So we will see what happens next when we adopt this report. In my view, that is the key document we need to adopt, and we will see how the members from the majority respond to it,” the interviewee says.
Asked which changes he would single out compared with previous electoral cycles, Rašuo stresses that the biggest change is the presence of members who publicly draw attention to all the anomalies they identify.
“In my view, the biggest change is that we are here and can see what is happening, that we can raise the alarm over every anomaly we notice and explain it to the public, that we can highlight every irregularity, examine it, see what it is and try to resolve it. We cannot resolve things systemically, but we can start resolving them individually. Is that enough? I don’t think it is,” Rašuo says.
Suspicious addresses, “phantom” voters and municipalities with more voters than residents
Regarding the information that 42 municipalities in Serbia have more voters than residents, Rašuo explains that this is due to the number of voters exceeding the number of adult residents as a result of people moving to the West and an influx of fictitious residences from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The data generally show that there has been a great deal of emigration from some municipalities and that many people still have fictitious residences registered in those municipalities, even though they have actually moved abroad, most often to Germany or the West. In other municipalities, we have a very large influx of fictitious residences from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he explains.
Asked whether this indicates the possibility of malpractice, Rašuo confirms that it does and explains that Serbian citizenships are allegedly being distributed for participation in elections, while fictitious residences are being registered in municipalities along the Drina, such as Mali Zvornik.
“In the sense that, as we have been informed, there is a practice of this kind. Now, whether we have accurate information, I don’t know, that Serbian citizenships are very easily being granted for the purpose of participating in these elections. And that this could also explain the increased number of citizenships granted in recent years. And that these people register fictitious residences in those municipalities along the Drina, such as Mali Zvornik,” Rašuo warns.
Responding to the argument that these people are entitled to citizenship, Rašuo stresses that he does not dispute their right to citizenship, but rather the fictitious residences, the registration of which constitutes a misdemeanour and a criminal offence.
“I do not dispute these people’s right to citizenship. That is all fine. What I dispute is that these people have fictitious residences. Registering such residences is both a misdemeanour and probably a criminal offence, because they are misleading a state official, a police officer, who is supposed to fill out an official document registering their residence,” the Insajder interviewee stresses.
Asked how much this issue has been discussed within the Commission, Rašuo says it has been a constant stumbling block and explains that the concept of residence should be changed, following the examples of Croatia and Hungary.
“This has been discussed in the Commission for the Audit from the very beginning and it is one of the major stumbling blocks. We talk about it constantly. In the end, we have even proposed, for example, attempts to change the concept of residence as it exists in Serbia. Croatia and Hungary, for example, have a different concept. They have allowed their citizens living abroad to state in their personal documents that they reside abroad. So, I don’t know, all Croatian citizens living in Serbia have identity cards with addresses in Serbia. And that is absolutely normal. They can come and vote, just like any other Croatian citizen, they simply cannot vote in local elections,” the Commission member explains.
Asked about the accuracy of data for Kosovo and Metohija, Rašuo points out that the Ministry of Public Administration does not publicly release data for six municipalities with an Albanian majority, where there are around 250,000 voters.
“The problem with voters from Kosovo is that the state, that is, the Ministry of Public Administration, has not published data for six municipalities. They are municipalities with an Albanian majority. The largest is Đakovica. And there are around 250,000 voters in those municipalities. In our module we can see those voters, we can see those municipalities, but they are not published publicly. And we noticed that discrepancy. And we were shocked to find out who those people were. It turned out, when we found out who they were, what they were, how they appeared there and why the data were not being published, that no one had ever told us,” he stresses.
Asked what he concludes from this and whether irregularities could occur, Rašuo says he does not believe there could be mass manipulation because these voters are assigned to specific polling stations.
“I don’t think anything can happen with those people. Quite simply, they are all registered at polling station number 1 in Đakovica if they are from Đakovica, or polling station number 1 in Kačanik if they are from Kačanik. So there cannot be some large-scale movement or large-scale insertion of ballot papers bearing their names. But we can certainly monitor it, because we are there and we are overseeing what is happening,” Rašuo says.
“You have 15 people living in a 24-square-metre apartment”
Asked about opposition claims concerning discovered phantom addresses, Rašuo explains that Commission members have found them independently and gives the example of a 24-square-metre apartment in Nehorova Street where 15 people are registered.
“The Commission did not find them, because the Commission has never discussed those cases. We, as individual Commission members, found them independently – Ana, people from CRTA and CESID, myself and people from NPS. We have been finding and continue to find these addresses. Yesterday we found a case in Nehorova Street. You have 15 people living in a 24-square-metre apartment. And all of them are registered to vote abroad,” the Insajder interviewee explains.
Asked how many such cases are known, Rašuo says there are several dozen locations.
“Several dozen. That is what we know about. With the software that CRTA is developing, it will be much more precise and we will know the exact number of addresses – or a relatively exact number of addresses – where this kind of fictitious registration is taking place,” he adds.
Asked how difficult it is to deregister people from fictitious addresses, Rašuo says it is extremely difficult and that the process through the police takes months.
“It is extremely difficult to deregister such people. First of all, the owner of the apartment has to do it, and they do not want to. In that case, you have to initiate proceedings through the police, which will take months and be highly uncertain. And the question is how willing they are to do it at all,” the Commission member warns.
Asked what needs to be done to ensure an accurate voter register, Rašuo says that, at a practical level, the legislative framework governing residence, identity cards and the police needs to be changed.
“At a practical level, we need changes to legislation, changes to the legislative framework governing identity cards, residence and the voter register, as well as the Police Act, which would allow addresses to be checked more easily and people with fictitious residences to be removed more easily. There could perhaps even be some mechanism for removing from our registers people who have died abroad, if there is sufficient evidence that they have died, that they do not have a valid identity card, do not receive a pension and so on. But that kind of legislative reform will not happen under these people,” he stresses.
Responding to a question about irregularities concerning voting abroad, Rašuo points to the problem of delays in decisions approving applications to vote outside Serbia and uncertainty over the opening of polling stations.
“There could be several things. The problems arising now include delays in delivering decisions approving voting abroad. Now, how many of them there are… So we don’t know how many applications there actually are, how many have been submitted. We know how many decisions have been issued on those applications as of today, but we don’t know the number of applications themselves because we don’t know how quickly local authorities are processing them, since they are the ones issuing those decisions. So that number is around 55,000 today. Now, whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will open enough polling stations for voting abroad, which has very often been a problem because they have frequently decided simply not to open a polling station somewhere, allegedly because they lack the necessary conditions, we cannot know at this point. We will know once the decision to open the polling stations is issued,” Ognjen Rašuo concludes.
(Insajder, 30.09.2026)