RIK Approves Zukorlic, Russian Party Election Lists
RIK approved the election lists of Usame Zukorlic and the Russian Party as national minority lists, raising the total number of lists for the October 25 election from five to seven.
Serbia’s Republic Election Commission (RIK) approved two new election lists overnight between Thursday and Friday, September 17, for the snap parliamentary election called for October 25. At a session held in the National Assembly building, RIK chairman Vladimir Dimitrijevic confirmed national minority status for the list “Usame Zukorlic, Movement for Unification” and the list “Russian Party, Serbia in BRICS, Slobodan Nikolic.” That brought the number of approved lists from five to seven.
We reported earlier on the submission of Zukorlic’s list in the article “Zukorlic Hands RIK the Movement for Unification List.” Now it is clear how RIK reviewed that list, along with the numbers behind it.
How many signatures does Zukorlic’s list carry?
The list “Usame Zukorlic, Movement for Unification” holds ballot position six. Its lead candidate is Usame Zukorlic, president of the Justice and Reconciliation Party (SPP), and the list was handed to RIK on September 16 by the party’s authorized representative, Semir Macgalj.
RIK member Veljko Perovic presented the report on the list at the session. According to him, the list came with an electronic register listing 6,723 voters, but that figure did not match the actual number of submitted statements of support. Perovic said a count found 6,404 voter statements had been submitted, of which 66 were not legally valid and were withdrawn by the list’s own submitter.
“A subsequent check of the voter list found that 156 people are not entered in the unified voter register. The total number of legally valid voter statements supporting the electoral list is 6,182, given that the number of submitted voter statements is lower than the number of voters entered in the voter register,” Perovic said.
Minority list status requires at least 5,000 legally valid signatures under the law, half of the 10,000 required for lists that do not run as minority lists. Perovic added that the SPP is registered in the register of political parties as a party of the Bosniak national minority, on the basis of which Dimitrijevic confirmed the list’s status after the vote.
Sources disagree on the number of candidates on the list. Sputnik, Telegraf and Ozon, citing Perovic’s report from the session itself, put the SPP’s candidate count at 181 for the National Assembly. Ekspres and eBranicevo, however, report the list has 121 candidates. At the same session, RIK also adopted the SPP’s proposal for a member and deputy member of the commission in its expanded composition: Enes Mahmutovic, a lawyer from Tutin, and Majda Labura Cosic, a master of law from Novi Sad. Both decisions, on the list and on the proposal for the expanded composition, were adopted unanimously by RIK, with 20 of 20 members present voting in favor.
Russian Party gets ballot number seven
RIK approved the second list, “Russian Party, Serbia in BRICS, Slobodan Nikolic,” the same evening. It holds ballot position seven, and its lead candidate is party president Slobodan Nikolic, who submitted the list to RIK the same day, September 17, at 12:30 p.m., with 25 candidates.
RIK deputy member Ana Damnjanovic presented the report on that list. According to her, 5,360 statements of voter support were submitted, of which 114 were withdrawn by the list’s submitter as legally invalid. A further check found that 110 people were not entered in the unified voter register, while verification was not possible for three people due to incorrectly entered personal identification numbers. The final number of legally valid statements therefore stands at 5,101.
“The electoral list contains 25 candidates and meets all legal requirements regarding gender representation,” Damnjanovic told the session, according to Telegraf.
Damnjanovic specified that the Russian Party is registered in the register of political parties as a party of the Russian national minority, on the basis of which RIK granted it minority list status. Sputnik’s report on the same session states that the party is registered as a party of the “Bosniak national minority,” which matches neither the party’s name nor other sources and appears to be an error in that report. Like Zukorlic’s list, the Russian Party’s list was adopted unanimously, with 20 of 20 RIK members present voting in favor.
Seven lists, four of them minority lists
With the approval of these two lists, RIK has so far approved seven election lists for October 25, according to BBC News Serbian as carried by Naslovi.net, four of which are minority lists: the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Rasim Ljajic’s list, Usame Zukorlic’s list and the Russian Party’s list.
The deadline for submitting election lists expires at midnight on October 4, exactly 20 days before election day. By law, RIK must issue a decision approving or rejecting each list within 48 hours of receiving it. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called the snap parliamentary election on Wednesday, September 9, setting the vote for October 25.
