Elections for Members of Parliament of the Republic of Serbia (Parliamentary Elections) are held every four years, which is the length of one term the National Assembly according to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. In addition to regularly scheduled elections, early elections can be called as well when the National Assembly is dissolved by decree of the President of the Republic in cases stipulated by the Constitution.
The President of the Republic is obliged to dissolve the NationalAssembly if the National Assembly fails to elect a new Government:
- within 90 days from the day of constitution of the new legislature.
- within 30 days from the passing of a vote of no confidence in the Government;
- within 30 days from the failure to pass a vote of confidence in the Government;
- within 30 days from the confirmation of the resignation of the Prime Minister at the session of the National Assembly.
The President of the Republic may dissolve the National Assembly, on a reasoned proposal of the Government.
Parliamentary elections are called by the President of the Republic.
Regularly scheduled Parliamentary elections are called by the President of the Republic 90 days before the end of term of the ongoing Legislature.
Early Parliamentary elections are called by the President of the Republic simultaneously with the dissolution of the National Assembly.
From the day of calling the elections until the polling day no less than 45 and no more than 60 days may elapse
Elections are held in the Republic of Serbia under a proportional representation system in a single, nationwide constituency, with closed
party-list representation and the seats are distributed in proportion to the number of votes received by each party-list.
The elections are conducted by the Republic Electoral Commission, with a four-year term, and polling boars, which are set up for each
elections.
Every citizen of the Republic of Serbia with the domicile on the territory of the Republic of Serbia who is over 18 years of age has the right to vote in parliamentary elections and stand as a candidate at elections.
The exercise of the right to vote is absolutely free. Which means that every voter has he right to decide freely whether he/she will vote in the elections. Therefore, no one has the right to prevent or force another person to vote, to hold a voter to account for voting or to demand a voter to declare for whom he/she has voted for or why he/she has not voted.
Election candidates are nominated by a registered political party by a coalitions of political parties or by a group of citizens.
The nomination of a candidate shall be submitted to the Republic Electoral Commission not later than 15 days prior to the day of elections. With each electoral list, the submitter is obliged to submit other documents prescribed by law, as well as at least 10,000 statements certified by law, signatures of the voters supporting particular electoral list.
Each electoral list shall include not more than 250 candidates, which is equal to the number of parliamentary seats. Among every three candidates on the electoral list (first group of three places, second group of three places and so on until the end of the list) there has to be at least one candidate of the gender less represented on the list.
Electoral lists are indicated on a ballot paper in the order of their promulgation by the Republic Electoral Commission.
Not later than five days prior to the election date, each voter shall receive a notification with the date and time of elections, the number and the address of a polling station and his/her registration number in the excerpt from the electoral register. The voter is not obliged to bring this notification to the polling station and he/she may not be denied the voting right only because he/she does not have this notification on him/her.
On the election day, polling stations are opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 8:00 p.m. A polling station must be constantly open during these hours.
The voting takes place at polling stations in the Republic of Serbia and polling stations abroad (as a rule, in diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Serbia) determined by theRepublic Electoral Commission. The voter votes in the country in accordance with its registered place of domicile, and has the possibility to vote at the place of his/her temporary residence, instead of his place of domicile, and is obliged thereof to inform the municipality of the place of his residence not later than five days before the day of the elections.
Voting is performed by circling the ordinal number in front of the name of the chosen electoral list. Therefore, a vote is cast for the electoral lists and not for an individual candidates on the lists. A voter may vote for only one electoral list on the ballot.
Only electoral lists which have passed the threshold i.e. received more than 5% votes of the total number of votes cast in the elections shall take part in the distribution of the seats. There are two exceptions to this rule.
The first exception refers to electoral lists of political parties of national minorities, whose status at the elections has been approved upon their request, by the Republic Electoral Commission, and according to which they do not have to pass the threshold, and can take part in the distribution of the seats regardless of the number of the votes they received (principle of so-called natural threshold), which still does not guarantee that they will win a seat after the distribution of the votes.
The second exception appears in a situation when none of the electoral lists has won at least 5% of the votes cast; in that case, the seats are distributed between all electoral lists.
Each electoral list is apportioned a number of seats in proportion to the number of votes received.
The mandates shall be allocated in accordance with the highest averages method (so-called the D'Hondt method), and mandates shall be apportioned by dividing the total number of votes received by each separate electoral list by numbers from one to 250 inclusive. The quotients thus arrived at are sorted by size, and the 250 largest quotients are taken into account.
Each electoral list receives as many seats as there are winning quotients among the largest 250.
The Republic Electoral Commission publishes the results of the elections within 96 hours from the moment the voting has been completed. The results of the election are published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia.
Within ten days from the day the election results are published, the Republic Electoral Commission shall allocate the seats to the candidates form the party lists according to order on the list, starting from the first candidate on the list.
The new legislative term of office starts with the confirmation of mandates of at least two thirds of MPs at the first session of the newly elected parliament.
Protection of voting rights is provided during the course of the whole election process.
Every voter, candidate and submitter of electoral list has the right to file an appeal with the Republic Electoral Commission on grounds of infringement of electoral rights during the elections, or on grounds of irregularities in the candidacy or voting procedure, within 24 hours of the making of the decision or of the execution of the act which the plaintiff deems irregular, or the moment when the omission was made.
The Republic Electoral Commission shall make a ruling within 48 hours of the moment of receipt of the appeal.
An appeal may be filed with the Administrative Court against any decision of the Republic Electoral Commission which shall make a decision on the appeal within 48 hours of the receipt of the appeal.