RIK Recognizes Ljajic Minority List Despite Sajn's Objection

Srdjan Sajn, president of the Roma Party, sent a written request to Serbia’s Republic Election Commission (RIK) on September 15, asking it to first determine whether the election list of the Sandzak Democratic Party (SDP) and the Montenegrin Democratic Party (CDP), led by Rasim Ljajic, meets the legal requirements for national minority list status before ruling on it. The request landed just as RIK was preparing to decide, at its 20th session, on the lists for the early parliamentary election scheduled for October 25.

Sajn cited the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament, which requires RIK to deny minority status when a list’s leader or a candidate for parliament is a person publicly recognized as an active member of a party that is not registered as a national minority party. Ljajic founded the SDP and previously led the Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS), and according to Sajn, the SDPS does not hold minority party status.

What Led Up to the Request

The SDP and CDP submitted their list to RIK on Monday, September 14, with 8,053 certified signatures. The commission validated 7,675 of those as legally sound written declarations of voter support. The list carries 250 candidates, more than half of them women, and runs under the name Rasim Ljajic, People’s (SDP, CDP), with the campaign slogan “It’s time for normal.” According to the coalition’s own statement, the two parties agreed to run together, offering voters a message of normalcy, stability and realism. It was the fourth list submitted to RIK for this election, and the first to come with a request for minority status.

Why Is Sajn Challenging the List’s Minority Status?

In his written submission to RIK, Sajn argued that the law leaves no room for ambiguous interpretation when it comes to publicly recognized officials.

RIK rejects, by decision, a proposal to grant a given election list the status of a national minority election list if the legal requirements are not met.

He also laid out the specific reason he believes those requirements are not met in this case.

Rasim Ljajic is not a politically anonymous figure. He is a longtime political official and a former president of the SDPS.

The Roma Party leader also spelled out what exactly he is asking of the commission, regardless of which list is involved.

We will ask for only one thing: that the law apply equally to everyone.

Speaking to the outlet Nova, Sajn went further, saying the move to put Ljajic at the head of the list points to a wider problem in this election cycle.

Ljajic heading a Sandzak party and a Montenegrin party is a sign that election engineering is being prepared.

Sajn extended his objection to a second list that presents itself as Roma, one he says is led by Milos Mihajlovic. He said Mihajlovic had been an active participant in the SDPS and is the son of the party’s former vice president, Vitomir Mihajlovic, which in his view shows that Ljajic’s influence over minority lists is not confined to a single one.

RIK Certifies the List Anyway, Unanimously

Despite Sajn’s request, RIK issued its decision that same evening, September 15, at its 20th session, certifying the Rasim Ljajic, People’s (SDP, CDP) list and, in a separate ruling, granting it national minority election list status. All 19 members present voted in favor, with no votes against and no abstentions. RIK president Vladimir Dimitrijevic chaired the session. At the same sitting, the commission also granted minority status to the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Dr. Balint Pastor list, while certifying the Students Win student list under a separate ruling.

Sajn had previously said that if RIK recognized minority status for the SDP and CDP list, the Roma Party would ask the relevant courts, including the Constitutional Court, to weigh in. Now that the certification has gone through, that announcement becomes the next step in the dispute. The Roma Party itself is running in this election under its own list, “Justice for You and All of Us, Roma Party, Srdjan Sajn.”

The outlet Srpske vesti had earlier reported that Ljajic submitted his list to RIK and that it was running as a minority list. What is new in this dispute is that RIK reached its decision without a single vote against, despite the Roma Party president’s written objection. The deadline for submitting election lists runs out on October 4, and voters head to the polls for the early parliamentary election on October 25. Whether Sajn actually files a challenge with the Constitutional Court, and how the court would read the law’s public recognizability standard if he does, will become clear only in the weeks ahead of the vote.