RIK Assigns European Serbia Ballot Number 10

The Republic Election Commission (RIK) certified the European Serbia, Marinika Tepic, Zdravko Ponos list for the early parliamentary election called for October 25, at its 25th session, held on Sunday, September 20, 2026. The list was submitted by the European Serbia coalition, made up of the Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center (SRCE) and Solidarity, Self-Defense, Liberation. In the race, the list carries ballot number 10.

Srpske Novine reported yesterday that the coalition had handed RIK around 10,200 signatures of support. At the session, that figure was pinned down precisely: the list’s sponsor submitted 10,347 written voter statements of support, backed by an electronic record listing 10,130 voters. Of that total, the Republic Election Commission recognized 10,020 statements as legally valid.

The session was chaired by RIK president Vladimir Dimitrijevic, and the report on the list was delivered by commission member Jasmina Milosevic.

Why some signatures were not accepted

Milosevic explained why part of the voter statements did not make it into the final count:

• 52 voters were not entered in the single voter register
• 43 voters had backed the same election list two or more times
• 14 statements were not legally valid, missing a voter’s or certifier’s signature, missing a stamp, or submitted as a copy instead of an original, so the list’s sponsor withdrew them itself
• one voter’s data could not be checked because of an incorrectly entered unique citizen identification number

“A subsequent check of the voter list found that 52 people were not entered in the single voter register, that 43 people had backed this same election list two or more times, and that for one person verification was not possible because of an incorrectly entered unique citizen identification number. Given all of this, the total number of legally valid voter statements backing this election list is 10,020,” Milosevic said.

The number of candidates on the list has since changed. The coalition originally handed RIK a list of 248 candidates for parliament. Stefan Janjic, the authorized representative of the list’s sponsor, told the commission before the session opened that the candidates in the 78th and 248th spots were being withdrawn, while the candidate who had held the 247th spot was moving up to 78th.

“Following this change, the election list now has a total of 246 candidates for parliament, instead of the initial 248 it had when submitted,” Milosevic said.

Milosevic added that the check found the list meets the legal requirements on gender representation set out in the law on the election of members of parliament, and that all the required paperwork had been filed along with the list, including a statement of intent to use public funds to cover campaign costs.

Tenth list in the race for parliament

The European Serbia list is the tenth RIK has certified in this election cycle. Before it, the commission certified the lists of Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia; Ivica Dacic, Stability Factor; and the Student List, Students Win, followed by the lists of the Sandzak Democratic Party and the Montenegrin Democratic Party, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, the Justice and Reconciliation Party and the Russian Party, as well as the Authentic Right list of Dr. Milos Jovanovic. The last list certified before European Serbia was People’s Choice, submitted by the Serbian People’s Movement, New Face of Serbia and Ecological Uprising, which has already announced it will withdraw from the race in favor of the Student List.

At the same session, RIK also ruled on dismissals and appointments of members of municipal and city election commissions.

That same day, the Sandzak Party of Democratic Action submitted its own list, SDA Sandzak, Guardians of Sandzak, to RIK, with 35 candidates and 6,128 certified signatures. The legal threshold for minority lists is 5,000 signatures, and by law RIK has 48 hours to decide on certifying it.

The deadline for submitting election lists runs out at midnight on October 4, while the single voter register closes on October 9.