Balkanist continues to provide English translations of documents pertaining to the alleged electoral fraud that took place in Serbia during the April 24th elections. Read up here for more on dead voters and other alleged malfeasance.
Two official requests were filed at the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) at noon this past Tuesday, with the aim to clarify events of the election night and to either prove or disprove suspicions that the electoral process had been rigged. Official requests were filed by the president of political movement “Dosta je bilo,” Saša Radulović, as well as leaders of political coalitions DS-Nova-DSHV-ZZS, DSS-Dveri and SDS-LSV-LDP.
The first request aims to establish whether non-existent and dead citizens voted; whether the electoral board’s minutes from voting stations were falsified; whether extra ballots were added to ballot sacks after the voting process was already over; and whether people who never voted were actually marked as having voted. RIK was asked to allow each eligible voter to make an online check at RIK’s website about the status of his/her voting, as well as be permitted to check the same status for late members of their family.
In addition, it was requested that each municipality form a mixed commission consisting of party representatives as well as representatives of RIK, with the task to make this data about the status of individual voters available online.
The second request aims to establish what actually happened during the chaos of election night. It is apparent that at numerous polling stations, electoral boards failed to follow legal procedures after voting was over, i.e. to count ballots, record and sign the electoral board’s minutes, give one copy of minutes to the representatives of the first four political options with the most votes, and then to deliver ballots in sealed sacks to RIK.
This is the reason why the second request asks for documents which will allow for the clarification of the following: voter turnout at the election held on 24 April by hour and by voting station; establishment of the exact moment at which electoral boards signed their minutes and the timing when voting materials were handed over; the exact time at which voting results were entered from minutes onto the web application; the name and last name of the person who entered this data and the location where this task was completed.
Also requested are copies of minutes about the handover of the voting material from the working body to the relevant RIK coordinator, with data about the exact time of the handover and data of all additional changes made in the list of voters for every voting station within the Republic of Serbia 10 days before the scheduled elections.
If there was no manipulation of the election or vote rigging, we see absolutely no reason for RIK to refuse to accommodate all of our requests.
Attached are two official requests filed with RIK.
Official request No. 1
Republic Electoral Commission (RIK)
Kralja Milana 14
Belgrade
REQUEST FOR POST-ELECTION ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO THE LIST OF VOTERS
After having individual access to election material and extracts from unique list of voters which were used during the parliamentary election on 24 April 2016, signatories of this request established that dead people voted at certain voting stations, as well as people who do not reside at the address at which invitations to vote were delivered. We also establish that some people voted not in their name but instead of others.
Especially problematic is data about people who reside in Kosovo and who are recorded as having used their voting right in the extract of the unique voting list.
The OSCE Election Observation Mission in Belgrade made note of the questionable status of voters and the Unique List of Voters (ULV) from Kosovo in its Temporary Report from 15 April 2015, stating that due to the lack of clear information from the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government “it is not clear in which way data was entered into ULV and how changes in it were made where Kosovo inhabitants are concerned.”
Signatories of this request, as representatives of the political parties which took part in the parliamentary election held on 24 April 2016, request that the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) decide on the following documents:
- The act which will oblige RIK to make available online the data about all voters who confirmed that they voted at parliamentary elections on 24 April by their own signature in the Extract of the List of Voters, thus allowing every eligible voter to search their own voting status by entering their Unique Master Citizen Number at the official RIK web portal and establish whether they used their voting right and where.
- The act which will oblige each municipality to form a mixed commission of representatives from political parties which took part in the election held on 24 April and representatives of RIK officials, with the task to check the data on voters who used their voting rights and convert them from electoral board minutes into electronic form, after which they will be published on the official web portal of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), enabling an individual search of this database by Unique Master Citizen Number.
In Belgrade, 30 April 2016
Submitted by:
DOSTA JE BILO – SAŠA RADULOVIĆ
DEMOKRATSKA STRANKA (NOVA, DSHV, ZZS)
DVERI – DEMOKRATSKA STRANKA SRBIJE
LIBERALNO DEMOKRATSKA PARTIJA, LIGA SOCIJALDEMOKRATA VOJVODINE, SOCIJALDEMOKRATSKA STRANKA
* * *
Official request No. 2
Republic Electoral Commission
Kralja Milana 14
Belgrade
REQUEST FOR DATA
Signatories of this request, as representatives of political parties which took part in the parliamentary election held on 24 April 2016, kindly require Republic Electoral Commission to enable us access to copies of documents and data which can provide us with the following information:
- Turnout percentage; date and exact time of this data being entered into web application for each voting station in Republic of Serbia, at each REC cut-off time on the day of 24 April 2016.
- Election result report at each REC cut-off time, starting with the first one that was made after 20:00 hours, until the last one.
- Exact time at which minutes were signed by each electoral board at each voting station.
- Copies of minutes about handover of election material between electoral board and the working body, with noted time of the handover (form no. NPRS-15/16).
- Exact time of voting results entry from the minutes into the web application, as well as the name and the last name of the person who entered them and the name of location at which this entry was made for each voting station independently.
- Copies of minutes about handover of election material between the working body and REC coordinator, with noted time of the handover (form no. NPRS-16/16).
- Data about all additional changes made in the Unique List of Voters, for each voting station in the Republic of Serbia for the 10 days before elections.
In Belgrade, 30 April 2016
Submitted by:
DOSTA JE BILO – SAŠA RADULOVIĆ
DEMOKRATSKA STRANKA (NOVA, DSHV, ZZS)
DVERI – DEMOKRATSKA STRANKA SRBIJE
LIBERALNO DEMOKRATSKA PARTIJA, LIGA SOCIJALDEMOKRATA VOJVODINE, SOCIJALDEMOKRATSKA STRANKA
For more on alleged electoral fraud in Serbia:
Rigged Elections? A Chronology of Serbia’s Post-Election Crisis
Cover photo credit: Tanjug/Oksana Toksic
