RIK Confirms Withdrawal of Aleksic List, Number 9 Disputed

The Republic Election Commission (RIK) used its 29th session, held on the evening of September 24, to formally confirm the withdrawal of the “People’s Choice” election list, fronted by Miroslav “Miki” Aleksic, Milos Parandilovic and Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta. RIK chairman Vladimir Dimitrijevic presided over the session.

The list had been submitted by the “People’s Serbia” coalition, made up of the Serbian People’s Movement, New Face of Serbia and the Ecological Uprising Movement. RIK had certified it on September 18 under ballot number 9, after the coalition later supplied voter support signatures it had initially been missing. We previously reported that Aleksic had filed a request to withdraw the list, and RIK has now formally adopted that request. According to the outlet nova.rs, the withdrawal request was filed on September 22, and Dimitrijevic told the session it had arrived on time, within the legal deadline.

The withdrawal has opened a question RIK still has no answer to: what happens to the vacated spot and number 9 on the composite election list. RIK member Tanasije Marinkovic, a professor of constitutional law, warned that a “legal vacuum” exists on the matter, and that reshuffling the order could hurt the campaigns of lists that have been running under their own assigned numbers. He also raised the question of whether a withdrawn list’s number should be skipped altogether, cautioning that otherwise a “phantom” list could be pulled from the race so that another list could inherit the number under which the authentic one had campaigned.

“That way, the ‘phantom’ list would get a spot on the composite list, along with the number under which the authentic list ran its campaign,” Marinkovic said at the session, adding that similar cases have already come up in local elections.

Dimitrijevic replied that the issue is an important one, but that RIK has enough time, until October 9, when the composite election list is finalized, to hold a dedicated session on it.

At the same session, RIK also adopted decisions on the forms used to record voting results, on handover forms for election material, and on amendments to the instructions governing the setup of polling stations, all for the elections scheduled for October 25. A complaint filed by voters Boris Djondovic and Branislav Popadic of Kovin was rejected as improperly filed, while a complaint from Savo Djurdjic of Novi Sad was rejected as unfounded.

With the “People’s Choice” list withdrawn, ten of the eleven previously certified lists remain in the race, alongside the “Bogoljub Karic, SERBIAN STRENGTH Movement, BK” list, whose signature verification is still under way. The “People’s Serbia” coalition explained the withdrawal as an effort to contribute to a “referendum atmosphere” and to redirect its resources toward monitoring the election process, throwing its support behind the student-backed list running under number 3.

The deadline for submitting election lists expires at midnight on October 4, with the parliamentary elections set for October 25, 2026. Whether number 9 stays vacant or passes to another list is a decision RIK is expected to make before the composite list is closed.