Serbia Voter List Open for Review Until October 9

City and municipal administrations across Serbia have begun displaying the unified voter list ahead of the snap parliamentary election called for October 25. Citizens can check their information and file requests to register, delete, change, add to, or correct their entries, with the final day to submit such requests set at October 9 by midnight, according to notices posted by local administrations, including the Sremska Mitrovica City Administration.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, however, states a different rule on its own website: by law, the voter list closes 15 days before election day, which for October 25 falls on October 10. The gap is only a single day, but the two sources don’t agree, and which date actually applies in practice will only become clear once the deadline passes.

Review is possible in two ways: in person at the city or municipal administration according to one’s place of residence, or place of temporary residence for internally displaced persons, or electronically through the Ministry’s portal at upit.birackispisak.gov.rs. In its notice announcing the list’s display, the Sremska Mitrovica City Administration states:

Access to the voter list can be exercised directly at the City Administration according to place of residence, or electronically through the Ministry’s official portal

In Sremska Mitrovica, review counters are open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.

From the moment the list closes until 72 hours before election day, requests for changes are no longer decided by the local administration but by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MDULS). An appeal against a city or municipal administration’s decision must be filed with the Ministry within 24 hours of the decision being delivered, and a lawsuit against a Ministry decision must be filed with the Administrative Court within that same 24-hour window.

A separate deadline applies to voters who want to cast their ballot according to their place of temporary residence rather than permanent residence. That request must be filed at least five days before the list closes. The Sremska Mitrovica City Administration’s notice lists October 3 as the deadline for registering a chosen polling location within its territory, while other sources cite October 4. For voting abroad, the deadline is stricter and clearly set: a request to register for voting at a diplomatic-consular mission must be filed by midnight on October 3, Serbian time, in person, by mail, or electronically, along with a completed form and a copy of a valid passport or ID card. Srpske vesti reported on that deadline earlier, in an article on the October 3 registration cutoff for voters in the diaspora.

Alongside the check of personal data, attention has again turned to so-called phantom voters, a phenomenon that first surfaced after the 2023 election, when citizens reported that people who don’t actually live at their address were being registered there. The Law on the Unified Voter List was amended afterward, most recently in 2025, to allow for an independent review of the list.

Pavle Dimitrijevic of the non-governmental organization CRTA says the Commission for the Review of the Voter List, although it began work in late January, has still not managed to start the review itself because of delays in gaining access to the relevant records.

This means we will go into the election with unknowns regarding the voter list, so we cannot say what the actual state of the voter list is, whether it’s better or worse, for the simple reason that the review hasn’t been done

Speaking on the K1 television channel, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Snezana Paunovic responded that the key ODIHR recommendations concerning the voter list have already been written into law, and said the commission has not submitted a single concrete objection to the ministry pointing to irregularities.

Djordje Miketic of the Beograd ostaje (Belgrade Remains) organization says election manipulation changes shape from one cycle to the next.

Each subsequent election gets worse and more unlawful, and this one will be the most irregular yet

A property owner who suspects that unknown people have been registered at their address can request a list of registrants from the police administration, with a property deed or sales contract, a scanned ID card, and a request in free form. The response arrives by mail within 10 to 15 days. An unknown person cannot be deregistered without their own consent, but proceedings can be started to deactivate the address.

Until the list closes, whether local administrations apply October 9 as the final deadline or the Ministry counts October 10 under the legal 15-day rule, voters in Serbia have an open window to check their information before the Ministry alone begins deciding on any further changes.