ODIHR Deploys Election Observers Across Serbia Ahead of 25 October Early Parliamentary Elections

Media-Society.com // BELGRADE – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has opened an election observation mission for Serbia’s early parliamentary elections on 25 October, announcing the deployment from Belgrade on 16 September following an invitation from the national authorities.

The mission is headed by Eoghan Murphy and consists of a core team of 14 international experts based in Belgrade. Thirty long-term observers from 24 different OSCE countries began deploying throughout the country on 25 September, and ODIHR plans to request 300 short-term observers, who will arrive several days before election day.

“Elections are a process, not a single day, and our observation begins well before voters go to the polls,” mission head Eoghan Murphy said. “Our presence throughout Serbia over several weeks allows us to engage with a broad range of actors in these elections, follow developments as they unfold, and understand their significance for the electoral process as a whole.”

The observers will assess whether the elections are held in line with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. Their work will cover election legislation and its implementation, the election administration, voter and candidate registration, the campaign environment — including online activity and social media — campaign finance, media coverage, and the resolution of election-related disputes. The mission will also examine institutional preparedness to detect and address disinformation, foreign and domestic misinformation and interference.

For election day itself, delegations from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament will join efforts with the ODIHR mission. The short-term observers will be deployed throughout the country in multinational teams of two to monitor the opening of polling stations, voting, the counting of ballots and the tabulation of results at all levels.

ODIHR will publish an interim report approximately two weeks before the elections, followed by a joint press conference on preliminary findings the day after the vote. A final report with a comprehensive assessment and potential recommendations will be published in the months following the elections. All 57 OSCE participating States have committed to following up on ODIHR’s recommendations; readers can track implementation across the region via ODIHR’s Paragraph 25 platform.

This will be the 21st election ODIHR has observed in Serbia, most recently the 2024 elections. The observation forms part of a busy autumn for the organization, which is also monitoring general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 4 October and an election assessment mission in Latvia on 3 October, as listed on its upcoming elections calendar.