The election observation mission Crta has highlighted serious irregularities and concerning trends in the run-up to Serbia’s local elections on 29 March. In its pre-election campaign report, Crta noted high levels of participant inequality, intense pressure, incidents, and unscrupulous negative campaigning.
The report cites political misuse of children and gender-based digital harassment as part of the broader campaign environment. Inequality was largely driven by extensive misuse of public resources and functions favoring ruling parties, coupled with their dominance in the media.
Crta also noted that national issues and visits by high-level government officials overshadowed the local nature of the elections. The ruling bloc’s campaign was highly centralized, relying heavily on the president’s political figure, while opposition and independent actors faced limited visibility and resources.
Since the election announcement on 23 February, more than 300 visits by senior state officials were recorded across 10 municipalities, further blurring the line between state and party activity. Persistent issues included inefficiencies and illegal practices by local electoral commissions, non-transparent voter list changes, and the emergence of quasi-observer missions, including foreign actors.
Of 50 declared candidate lists, Crta identified 19 with strong indicators of being non-authentic or “phantom” lists, often lacking local activity, proper citizen engagement, or genuine representation of minority groups, potentially misleading voters.
On election day, 29 March, Crta will deploy 10 mobile observation teams across all 10 municipalities. Their focus will be on assessing the broader voting context and monitoring incidents and pressures, rather than reporting turnout or results.
