Polling stations are open in Serbia where extraordinary parliamentary elections, extraordinary elections for the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and extraordinary local elections for the capital Belgrade and 65 other local governments are being held today.
Polling stations are open at seven o’clock, and will be closed at 8:00 p.m. 6,500,165 citizens have the right to vote in the parliamentary elections, 1,669,734 in the provincial elections, and 1,613,190 in the Belgrade elections.
The Republic of Serbia, according to the valid Election Law, represents one electoral unit. The parliamentary mandates are distributed proportionally according to the number of votes won.
For the political parties of national minorities in the distribution of mandates, which, if they do not exceed the electoral threshold of three percent, the “natural threshold” applies, which is obtained when the number of valid votes is divided by 250 deputies for each deputy seat, which, depending on the turnout in the elections , ranges between 12,000 and 16,000 votes.
2,817 candidates on 18 election lists
Seven electoral lists of national minorities are participating in these elections.
Extraordinary elections were called at the request of some opposition parties, after several months of protests by citizens throughout Serbia, dissatisfied with the state’s response to two mass murders at the beginning of May in Belgrade and the villages of Malo Orašje and Dubona, in the vicinity of Mladenovac and Smederevo, in which 19 people, mostly children, were killed.
The Republic Election Commission (REC) determined that there are 18 election lists with a total of 2,817 candidates on the ballot.
Voting will take place at a total of 8,273 polling stations, of which 29 will be in institutions for the execution of criminal sanctions, and 81 abroad in 35 countries.
Serbs from Kosovo will be able to vote in the parliamentary elections in Vranje, Kuršumlija, Raška and Tutin, the RIK announced earlier. 51 polling stations were designated for the Kosovo administrative district, Peć, Prizren, Kosovo-Mitrova, and Kosovo-Pomeranian administrative district.
Voting in 35 states
Voting was organized in a total of 35 states, i.e. at 81 polling stations. This is the largest number of polling stations opened abroad since 2004, when members of the diaspora were allowed to vote abroad. About 40,000 Serbian citizens applied to vote abroad.
About 11,500 Serbian citizens residing in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to vote at 19 polling stations.
The Republican Electoral Commission has a legal obligation to determine the final results of the election no later than 96 hours after the closing of the polling stations. Citizens will have the first estimates of the election results one hour after the polling stations close, AA reports.
Source: sarajevotimes.com
