Regular elections of members of national councils of national minorities (hereinafter referred to as national councils) are held every four years, which is the period of national councils’ one term of office.
The Law provides that regular elections for all national councils are held simultaneously.
Besides the regular ones, there is a possibility of holding early elections in certain cases of dissolving a national council.
Namely, a national council is dissolved by a decision of the Ministry in charge of human and minority rights (hereinafter: Ministry), if:
- a new national council is not constituted within 30 days since establishing final results of the elections;
- the procedure for the election of a national council has been suspended;
- a national council has not been convened for more than six months;
- the president of a national council is not elected within 30 days from the date of the council's constitution or from the end of the previous president's term of office;
- the number of national council’s members has reduced by more than half.
In cases where a national council is dissolved because the procedure for the election of a national council has been suspended or because the number of national council’s members has reduced by more than half, early elections are not held, but instead, the national council is deleted from the National Councils Register, and elections for a new national council are held together with regular elections for other national councils, provided that all legal requirements are met.
Early elections are not called even in the case when since the dissolution, there is less than a year left until the expiry of the dissolved national council’s term of office; in such a case, the elections for the new national council are also delayed until the regular elections are held for all national councils.
The elections for national councils may be direct or through the electoral assembly.
Whether the regular elections for a national council will be held as direct or through the electoral assembly depends on the number of voters registered in a special electoral register of the national minority with regard to the number of this national minority members according to the latest census in the Republic of Serbia.
Namely, direct elections for members of a national council are held where, 24 hours before announcing the elections, over 40% of the members of a national minority, according to the latest census, have been registered in the special electoral register of the national minority.
Elections through the electoral assembly are held in two cases:
- if the conditions for holding direct elections have not been fulfilled; and
- in case of calling early elections.
Elections of national council members are called by the Minister in charge of human and minority rights.
Whereas the regular elections are held simultaneously for all national councils, the Minister issues one decision on calling regular elections of members of all national councils.
The Decision on calling regular elections lays down, besides the date of elections, the number of members being elected for each national council and manner of electing the members of each national council - in direct elections or through the electoral assembly.
Having regard to the fact that early elections are called only for the purposes of electing members of a dissolved national council and that these elections are always held through the electoral assembly, the Decision on calling early elections is made for an individual national council and it includes the election date and the number of members being elected.
Regular elections are called no earlier than 120 and no later than 90 days before the expiry of term of office of the national council last constituted, so that they are held no later than 15 days before the expiry of term of office of the national council constituted last.
Early elections are called within 60 days after the dissolution of a national council and should be held within 45 days after the adoption of the Decision on calling the elections.
DIRECT ELECTIONS
Direct elections of national minority councils’ members are conducted by the Republic Electoral Commission and poling boards.
Elections are held in the Republic of Serbia as one constituency, by voting for electoral lists, with the application of proportional electoral system which includes the distribution of mandates of national council members proportionally to the number of votes won by the electoral lists.
Right to vote for national council members (active voting right) is granted to a national minority member who meets the general conditions for gaining the active voting right (nationals of the Republic of Serbia who have a business capacity and are over 18, and have a registered domicile in the territory of the Republic of Serbia), provided that they comply with a special requirement - to be registered in a special electoral register of their national minority.
A member of a national minority who has an active voting right and does not hold the position of a judge, prosecutor or a judge of the Constitutional Court, has a passive voting right, which is the right to be elected as a member of a national council.
Enforcement of voting rights is absolutely subject to free will. This means that each voter is free to decide whether to vote or not.
Therefore, nobody has the right to prevent or force anyone to vote, to hold anyone to account for voting or to request a voter to declare for whom he/she has voted or why he/she has not voted.
Candidates for national councils’ members may be proposed by a group of at least three voters recorded in the special electoral register, associations whose objectives are achieved in the field of protection of national minority rights and a registered national minority political parties.
A candidate is nominated by submitting electoral lists to the Republic Electoral Commission, not later than 15 days prior to the day of elections. Every nominator is obliged to submit, along with the electoral list, the statutory documentation, and the necessary number of certified statements of voters who are members of the national minority concerned, approving the candidacy with their signatures. An electoral list must be supported by at least 1% of voters and not less than 50 voters recorded in the special electoral register.
The electoral list must include at least than one-third of candidates out of the number of members of the national council to be elected, and not more than the aggregate number of candidates to be elected as members of the national council. Among every three candidates on the electoral list, in their orders on the list (first three places, second three places and so on until the end of the list) there needs to be at least one candidate of the less represented gender on the list.
Electoral lists are indicated on the ballot paper in the order of their promulgation by the Republic Electoral Commission.
The Republic Electoral Commission makes a decision to suspend the procedure for the election of a national council if:
- not a single electoral list applies for the election of of national councils’ members;
- no reported electoral list is promulgated;
- the number of candidates on promulgated electoral lists is smaller than the number of national council members being elected.
Not later than five days before the election date, each voter receives a notification indicating 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 special 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 opened during these hours.
Voting is conducted in polling stations in the Republic of Serbia which are determined by the Republic Electoral Commission.
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 individual candidates on the lists. A voter may vote for only one electoral list on the ballot.
Mandates of national council members are distributed jointly by all electoral lists, regardless of the number of votes won.
Each electoral list is apportioned a number of mandates proportionally to the number of votes won.
The mandates are distributed by applying the method of largest quotient (so called D’Hondt Method), by dividing the total number of votes won by each electoral list by numbers from 1 to the total number of members of the national council being elected. The resulting quotients are sorted out by size, taking into account the number of largest quotients that correspond to the number of members of a national council being elected.
Each electoral list is given as many mandates as the number of largest quotients belonging to it among the quotients whose number equals the number of members of the national council being elected.
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 elections are published in the ‘Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia’.
Within three days from establishing final election results, the Republic Electoral Commission adopts a decision on the allocation of mandates to members of a national council who are candidates on the electoral lists, according to their order in the electoral list, starting with the first candidate on the list.. Decision on the allocation of mandates is communicated to the Ministry and published in the ‘Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia’.
ELECTIONS THROUGH THE ELECTORAL ASSEMBLY
Elections through the electoral assembly are a form of indirect elections of national council members and not all members of a national minority who are recorded in the special electoral register have the right to vote in these elections, but only those who, under the procedure provided by the law, have applied and met the statutory conditions to become electors, which means to vote for national council members in the electoral assembly. Key requirement for a voter to be granted the status of an elector is to be supported by a certain number of signatures of voters who are members of a national minority. The number of the necessary supporting signatures depends on the number of national minority members according to the latest census held in the Republic of Serbia.
The Law stipulates the minimum number of electors whose applications need to be validated in order to hold the electoral assembly. The minimum number of electors also depends on the number of national minority members according to the latest census. The applications for participation in the electoral assembly are submitted to the Ministry not later than 30 days before the electoral assembly is held. The Ministry adopts a Decision on suspension of the procedure for the election of a national council if the minimum number of electors does not apply within the time limits provided by the Law, or if the prescribed minimum number of electors’ applications are not validated. This Decision is adopted 25 days before the electoral assembly and published in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia".
Elections for the electoral assembly are conducted by a three-member board designated by the Republic Electoral Commission from among those familiar with electoral procedures.
The date and place of the electoral assembly are published by the Ministry in the media, including a public invitation to all interested parties to timely submit their complete written applications for participation in the electoral assembly.
An electoral assembly may be held for the purposes of electing national council members if more than one-half of the validated electors are present, and not less than the minimum number provided by the Law, depending on the number of members of the minority concerned according to the latest census.
If the necessary number of electors are not present at the electoral assembly, the board conducting the elections makes a decision on suspending the elections procedure.
Elections at the electoral assembly are conducted by secret ballot vote for the electoral lists, with the application of proportional electoral
system which includes the distribution of mandates of national council members proportionally to the number of votes won by the electoral lists.
Candidates for membership in a national council may be proposed by at least one quarter of the number of electors present.
Candidates are nominated by submitting electoral lists to the board conducting the elections, and not to the electoral assembly.
A candidate for membership in a national council may be an elector or a voter recorded in a special electoral register of the national minority concerned. Where a candidate for membership in a national council is a voter, holder of the list of candidates comprising this voter needs to submit, along with the list of candidates, a certified voter’s statement providing his/her consent to be on the list.
The list needs to include at least one-third of candidates out of the number of members of the national council being elected, and not more than the aggregate number of candidates to be elected as national council members. Among every three candidates on the electoral list, in their order on the list (first three places, second three places and so on until the end of the list) there needs to be at least one candidate of the less represented gender on the list.
Where not a single list of candidates is submitted, or not a single list of candidates is promulgated, or if the number of candidates on the promulgated lists is smaller than the number of members of the national council being elected, the board conducting the elections adopts a Decision on suspending the national council election procedure.
The vote is cast by writing on the ballot paper the name of the holder of the list of candidates or the ordinal number of the list of candidates. Ordinal numbers of the lists of candidates are determined in the order in which they were submitted.
Mandates of national council members are distributed jointly by all lists of candidates, regardless of the number of votes won.
Each list of candidates is apportioned a number of mandates proportionally to the number of votes won.
The mandates are distributed by applying the method of largest quotient (D’Hondt Method), in the same manner in which mandates are distributed among members of the national council being elected in direct elections.
The board establishes the election results immediately upon the finalisation of voting, and announces them at the electoral assembly immediately after they are established. Decision on election results is published in the ‘Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia’.
Within three days from establishing final election results, the board adopts a decision on the allocation of mandates to members of a national council who are candidates on the lists of candidates, according to their order in the list, starting with the first candidate on the list. Decision on the allocation of mandates is communicated to the Ministry and published in the ‘Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia’.
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The term of office of a new national council’s mandate starts on the date of validating the mandates of all national council members at the constitutive session of the newly-elected council.
PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHS
The protection of voting rights is ensured during the whole election procedure.
In direct election procedure, each voter, candidate for national council member or the submitter of an electoral list has the right to file a statement of objection with the Republic Electoral Commission because of infringements of electoral rights during the elections, or because of procedural irregularities in proposing candidacy or voting procedures, within 24 hours from the moment the decision or act considered irregular by the person filing the statement of objection was conducted, or from the moment when the error was made.
The Republic Electoral Commission adopts a ruling relating to the statement of objection within 48 hours from the moment of receipt of the statement of objection.
An appeal against every ruling made by the Republic Electoral Commission may be submitted to the Administrative Court that passes a ruling on the appeal within 48 hours from the moment it receives it.
Administrative dispute proceedings may be initiated against the Decision of the Ministry on suspending the national council member election procedure and against the Decision of the Republic Electoral Commission on the allocation of national council members’ mandates, within 24 hours from the publication of the Decisions, and the Administrative Court is obliged to decide on the action within 48 hours from the receipt of it.
In the procedure of election through the electoral assembly, administrative dispute proceedings may be initiated against the decision of the Ministry confirming the electoral application within 24 hours after the receipt of the decision, and the Administrative Court decides on the action within 48 hours.
An elector may file an appeal to the Republic Electoral Commission against any decision of the board conducting the elections at the electoral assembly, within three hours after the adoption of the decision, and the Republic Electoral Commission decides on this appeal within 12 hours from the moment it receives it.
An action may be brought to the Administrative Court against the Decision of the Republic Electoral Commission on the appeal, within three hours after the receipt of the decision, and the Administrative Court decides on the action within 12 hours.