Serbia October 25 Election: Signature Collection Begins
Serbia's parliamentary election set for October 25 has triggered the signature drive: parties need 10,000 signatures per list, minority lists need 5,000, and voters can now back more than one list.
As of today, September 9, parties can start collecting signatures for electoral lists ahead of the parliamentary election scheduled for October 25. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic signed the decree dissolving the National Assembly and calling the election at noon, acting on a reasoned proposal from the government, setting off a chain of legal deadlines. By law, the campaign will run for 45 days.
The decree takes effect on the day it is published in the Official Gazette. From that moment, parties, coalitions and citizen groups have a little over three weeks to gather the required signatures and submit their lists to the Republic Election Commission (RIK).
How many signatures are needed?
An electoral list submitted by a party, coalition or citizen group needs at least 10,000 certified voter signatures. For a national minority list, the threshold is half that, 5,000 signatures. Signatures are submitted along with the list as written voter statements, certified before the deadline for filing the list expires.
Signatures can be certified by:
- notaries public
- municipal and city administrations
- where there is no notary, basic courts, court units and intake offices
Unlike previous election cycles, a single voter can now back more than one electoral list with their signature, not just one.
The minority-list threshold was explained to Nova.rs by Angela Trajkovic of CRTA’s legal team.
“Every list first has to collect 10,000 signatures, while for minority lists it’s set at half of that, so 5,000,” Trajkovic said.
Sources disagree on the final deadline for submitting lists. Nova.rs puts it at October 4, while btpublicnews.co.rs reports October 5, both counting 20 days before election day. Once a list is submitted, the RIK has 48 hours to decide whether to certify it or send it back for corrections.
Srpske Vesti previously reported that the opposition is already split into as many as 16 separate lists for the upcoming election. Each of them now has to independently collect 10,000 signatures within that same deadline, while minority lists work with half that threshold.
The next milestone is October 4 or October 5, depending on which source is used, when the deadline expires for submitting completed lists to the Republic Election Commission.
