“The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government has fulfilled the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR to the greatest extent, and continues to work diligently in order to raise the level of transparency and accuracy of data contained under the Single electoral Roll”, was pointed out at the meeting with the representatives of the Election Observation Mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR), which was held yesterday at the premises of the Ministry.
In the conversation with the representatives of the Ministry, the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, Ambassador Albert Jónsson, and the election analyst, Oleksiy Lychkovah, have shown interest in issues related to record keeping of voters in the Republic of Serbia.
The Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government at the Sector for Registers and Local Self-Government, Marina Dražić, has pointed out that the Single Electoral Roll is actually a mirror of other records, and that it is more organized than it has ever been. She explained that the Single Electoral Roll, as a single centralized database, is connected to other records that are kept on citizens, primarily to records on permanent and temporary residence, as well as to the Registry of Civil Records, in order to update the data obtained from the Register of Deaths and Register of Marriages.
Dražić has informed the interlocutors that, in order to increase transparency, the number of voters by Local Self-Government Units is published every three months on the official website of the Ministry until the closing of the Single Electoral Roll, and after the closing of the Single Electoral Roll, it is possible to view data on the names and surnames of all voters by polling stations for the area of each municipality, i.e. city.
She has also pointed out that voters residing abroad had the opportunity to, through the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Serbia, submit a request for the entry of information into the Single Electoral Roll that they will vote in the upcoming elections abroad, with a deadline until 25 November 2023 at midnight. Dražić has also stated that the Ministry enabled citizens to perform a check-up of their data contained in the Single Electoral Roll through the national eGovernment portal and, if necessary, submit a request for their entry or change.
The mandate of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission is to assess the compliance of the upcoming elections, which will be held in Serbia on 17 December 2023, with OSCE obligations and international standards, and to perform a comprehensive analysis of the electoral process.