Doljevac and Pancevo: Prosecutors Check Election Reports
Basic public prosecutors in Pancevo and Nis ordered police to act on reports from polling stations, including an alleged break-in at Doljevac that the board chairman denies.
The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pancevo and the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis announced their first steps on reports from polling stations on October 25, while voting in the snap parliamentary elections was under way. In Pancevo, a criminal complaint was filed against two people. In Kacarevo, a torn ballot was reported. In Doljevac, prosecutors are checking claims of a break-in at a polling station. We reported on October 24 on the arrest of D. L. (75) over a TikTok video about the elections.
What was reported in Pancevo and Kacarevo?
According to a statement from the Pancevo prosecutor’s office, the Pancevo Police Department filed a criminal complaint against Dj.T. and T.M. on suspicion that, acting as co-perpetrators, they violated the secrecy of the vote. Dj.T. is also suspected of coercion, endangering safety and damaging another person’s property. The prosecutor’s office did not say at which polling station or at what time this happened. The complaint rests on suspicion, not on established guilt.
“The prosecutor’s office opened a case on the criminal complaint it received and ordered the Pancevo Police Department to take measures and actions to check the allegations in the complaint,” the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pancevo said in its statement.
In Kacarevo, according to the report, a controller, K.A., told the Pancevo police duty service that at polling station No. 18 in the Sports Hall a voter, S.M., tore up his ballot after leaving the booth. The board chairman declared the ballot invalid. The prosecutor’s office ordered statements to be taken from everyone present, the torn ballot to be photographed, and a report on the incident to be submitted to it.
It was also reported to the prosecutor’s office that a group of unknown people photographed citizens without authorization outside polling station No. 39 on Svetog Save Street in Pancevo.
What is alleged, and what has the prosecutor said, in Doljevac?
Dragana Milutinovic, a lawyer and political activist from Nis, told N1 that a break-in took place at polling station 27 in Doljevac. The daily Danas carried her statement at 9:16 a.m., and N1 published its article with the prosecutor’s response at 11:46 a.m.
“About thirty people burst into polling station 27 in Doljevac and are physically attacking those present and disrupting the voting process,” Milutinovic told N1.
According to her, a female member of the polling board was slapped, and the Doljevac police stayed outside the polling station and did not go in, so people turned to the police in Nis. Milutinovic also said citizens burst into two more polling stations and attacked board members, but she did not say which ones. Neither the prosecutor’s office nor the board chairman has confirmed the claim about the slap, and the board member has not been named.
The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis said the Doljevac Police Station informed it at 8:20 a.m. of a report filed by a person identified as D.M., according to which about thirty masked people burst into the polling station at the secondary school. The statement says:
“The police acted immediately and established that this is polling station No. 27, which is also the only one in Doljevac, and at the scene immediately spoke with the chairman of the polling board, B. B., who stated that there had been no problems whatsoever at that polling station and that the report was obviously false.”
The prosecutor’s office says police did not notice any suspicious persons and that voting at that station was not interrupted. It ordered that information be collected from the person who filed the report, the board chairman and other witnesses, that video recordings be seized if they exist, and that a report be submitted within 24 hours, after which proceedings continue. N1 noted that the statement does not mention that any witnesses other than the board chairman were questioned.
No response from Milutinovic to the prosecutor’s statement is available in the sources. There is also no statement from the Interior Ministry on this case, and the only account of police conduct comes from the Nis prosecutor’s statement.
What is being reported from Cecina near Doljevac?
The same prosecutor’s office ordered interviews with board members at the polling station in the village of Cecina, where an incident took place around 7:50 a.m. S.M., a board member from Nis, reported that another board member, T.S., began shouting after she noticed that the handover record had not been filled in correctly, and told her: “all of you should be thrown out, this should be settled with a stick.”
T.S. denies the allegations. According to the prosecutor’s statement, so do the other board members, as well as A.M., an observer from CRTA. Here too the prosecutor’s office asks for a report on the interviews with all participants within 24 hours.
