On Wednesday, 28 February, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) submitted the final report on its observation mission for the parliamentary elections in Serbia on 17 December 2023 (see EUROPE 13346/24).
The document considers the victory of President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), to be “unjust”, believing that it had benefited from “systemic advantages” due to its position.
“Fundamental freedoms were generally respected in the campaign, but it was marred by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources”, explains the report, which finds that the elections were “dominated by the decisive involvement of the president”.
While international observers had repeatedly denounced irregularities during the voting process, the authors of the report believe that the elections were nevertheless “technically well administered and offering voters a choice of political alternatives”. In the Serbian government’s view, this assessment is sufficient to put an end to speculation about potential irregularities during the vote. “This report puts an end to all the lies and nonsense about stealing the election”, affirmed Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.
For its part, the European Commission indicated that it had taken note of the published report, reaffirming the need—already expressed in December—for the electoral process to be the subject of “tangible improvement and further reform”.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/b2z (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)