Cacak: complaint filed over list of 1,600 residents' data

Dozens of residents protested on the evening of October 9 outside the police department in Cacak over a document containing personal data on about 1,600 people in the city. Civic activist Nevena Trifunovic told the crowd that a joint criminal complaint over the misuse of personal data had been filed with the police, and that the police had passed it on to the competent prosecutor’s office. The rally ended without incident.

What does the document “Blocker Check - Cacak” contain?

According to reports from the protest, the document is circulating on social media. It lists names and surnames, dates of birth, phone numbers, home addresses, the numbers of the polling stations where people vote, and the names of canvassers who claim to have visited those residents on a given date and at a given time. Many entries carry a note on whether the person belongs to a party, and many people are tagged as “blockaders.”

The people on the list include students, teachers, doctors, opposition politicians, civic activists and journalists. Activist Slavica Petrovska told N1 that her entry says Serbian Progressive Party candidate Matija Popovic visited her on August 5 and supposedly spoke with her and her daughter, although her daughter was not home that day.

Who is the complaint filed against?

Trifunovic said the complaint targets the Republic Electoral Commission, employees of the City Administration and the canvassers named in the document. The signatories also state that the list was first made public a few days ago in a Telegram group called “Medeni Knows All,” and then spread to other networks and media. They are asking the police to establish who obtained the data that was later published, and how.

Trifunovic said everyone on the list “can be considered endangered,” and that their data was also used without authorization.

What do the people on the list say?

Protesters told the Beta agency that entire families, neighbors and friends are on the list, and that canvassers never visited them. Aleksandar Delic, a teacher and a candidate of the Student List in Cacak, told Beta he suspects the list includes people who signed to support that list’s candidacy in the parliamentary elections. The publication of the data, he said, did not surprise him:

“When the president of the Constitutional Court can say what does it matter that citizens are being wiretapped, if they have nothing to hide, then no kind of misuse of personal data surprises us.”

City Assembly councilor Pavle Jelesijevic told N1 that the data next to each name includes the polling station, but not the ID card number, which is required to check voting rights online. In his view, the list leaked from the SNS, which received it from the Republic Electoral Commission, which holds digital lists of those who signed in support of the Student List. That is the councilor’s claim, not an established fact.

N1 also reports that directors of public companies, councilors and assistants to the mayor are named on the list as canvassers and coordinators.

Is there a similar precedent?

N1 recalls that after the 2025 local elections in Zajecar, opposition officials reported finding a sack full of voter lists and claimed that an SNS official had thrown it into a dumpster. The prosecutor’s office dismissed that case.

Reports from the protest do not include any response from the Republic Electoral Commission, the City Administration or the police to the allegations in the complaint.