Claims that there was "buying of votes", "organized bringing of voters" and other irregularities during the election process marked what should be a holiday of democracy - voting on December 17 in Serbia.
While the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, says that the elections were "the cleanest and fairest so far", the Republican Electoral Commission has not yet announced the official results, as there will be a repeat vote on 28 polling stations on December 30.
Due to suspicions that there was bribery and parallel voting, there was work for the judiciary, and the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office ordered further investigations for individual cases.
The BBC has prepared a list of the most impressive recorded suspicions in the reports of domestic and foreign observers.
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Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability Crta: Voters brought in from abroad
Crta sent 3.000 observers to the field on election day, spread over 500 polling stations in Belgrade and as many in Serbia.
"The results of the Belgrade elections do not reflect the freely expressed will of the voters who live there," he said conclusion Drawings based on the collected materials of observers.
The main reason for this conclusion is "organized migration of voters".
People were brought to Belgrade from other parts of Serbia and abroad, primarily from Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to vote in the elections in the capital, says Crta.
In order to exercise the right to vote, they registered at addresses in Belgrade.
"Organized voter migrations are a phenomenon associated with fictitious residences.
"They are neither legal nor legitimate and contradict the basic principles of electoral law," stated Crta, an organization that has been monitoring the elections since 2016.
These people came to a number of special points, such as the Arena Hall in Belgrade, where they received information about the polling station where they should vote.
Then they were taken to the polling stations in an organized manner.
"In 14 percent of polling stations in Belgrade, an example of organized bringing of voters from other places in Serbia, supervised voting and possible manipulation of voter's identity was observed," they stated from Crta, and attached photos as evidence.
Prime Minister in technical mandate Ana Brnabić rejected the allegations of Crta, saying that it was "speculation and insinuations".
"The voter list shows that from April 2022 to December 2023, the number of voters in Belgrade increased by a measly 0 percent, which is 8 people," said Brnabić after the publication of Crta's report.
On election day, December 17, 20.360 people crossed the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, "a significant number of whom do not have Serbian citizenship, but also a significant number of children," Brnabić said later.
The opposition coalition Serbia against violence claims that 40.000 people from Republika Srpska voted in Belgrade that day, and the media published footage of numerous buses bringing them.
Cesid: A greater number of irregularities
The elections in Serbia were observed by Cesid, the first non-governmental organization in Serbia founded with the aim of observing the elections in 1997.
During the elections, "fundamental civil rights were respected", Cesid announced.
However, "no significant improvement in the quality of the electoral process was observed compared to the previous elections", warns Cesid.
Unequal access to the media and the appearance of public officials in the campaign are some of the problems of the pre-election period, they say.
"The dominant role in the campaign was played by President Aleksandar Vučić, who was not a candidate in the elections, which is possible according to the regulations, but it influenced the favoring of one election participant," said Cesid.
A large number of irregularities were observed during the election.
"Of the serious irregularities, indications of pressure on voters in front of polling stations, insertion of ballots, attacks on observers, voting in elections even though they were not entered in certain excerpts from the voter's list should be singled out," Cesid enumerates.
"Parallel records (without insight into who is conducting them)" were also observed, frequent procedural failures such as the absence of control UV lamps, group voting, as well as endangering the secrecy of voting.
Control with a UV lamp at the polling station serves to check whether the voter has previously voted.
How much the irregularities affected the outcome of the vote, it will be possible to assess "only when the completed reports of the observers arrive", announced Cesid.
A week after the election, this organization gave i a series of recommendations how to conduct future elections in a better way.
International observers: "Nowhere like in Serbia"
On election day, 361 international observers from 45 countries, representing various European institutions, visited the polling stations.
Among them was the social democrat Andreas Šider in front of the mission of the European Parliament, who said that he had never seen an election like the Serbian one anywhere.
"I have never seen an election where there were so many tensions before, and so many pictures showing people being brought in by buses, buying votes..." said Shider to N1.
President Vučić later commented that the observers "went to the polling stations and did not see irregularities, but later saw (them) on social networks".
Although 1.220 percent of the 93 polling stations observed voted positively, they also highlighted examples of serious irregularities.
"They were observed... buying votes and inserting multiple ballots into the ballot box at once.
"The secrecy of voting is not sufficiently ensured... There were also frequent cases of group voting, some of the cases of illegal influence on voters, illegal monitoring of voter turnout and photographing of ballots," it is written in the report, published on December 18.
Observers announced that "the elections were technically well organized, and voters could choose between several options".
However, they had several objections to the pre-election period, as well as the voting day itself.
"The decisive involvement of the president dominated the election process, and the use of his name on one of the papers together with media bias contributed to unequal conditions," he said Reinhold Lopatka, coordinator of the observation mission.
The frequency of early elections "undermines trust" in democratic institutions and delays reforms, observers warn.
"The lack of political debate, pressures on voters, emphasis on discrediting the personality of opponents, harsh rhetoric during the campaign... are very worrying," said Klemen Grošelj, head of the European Parliament's delegation.
What did they say?and diplomats?
The legitimacy of democratic processes depends on transparency and everyone's willingness to respect the will of the people expressed in the elections, said Christopher Hill, the American ambassador to Serbia.
Violence and vandalism against state institutions have no place in a democratic society, Hill wrote online ix for Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar.
The German Foreign Ministry was harsher.
"For a country with the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union (EU), abuse of public resources, voter intimidation and vote buying, which international observers observed in Serbia, are unacceptable.
"Serbia voted, but the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) reported misuse of public resources, voter intimidation and cases of vote buying. This is unacceptable for a country with the status of a candidate for EU membership," it said ministry.
President Vučić stated that official Belgrade is drafting "an important letter about the influence and interference of an important country in the electoral process of Serbia in the most brutal way", which will be ready by the New Year.
Vučić did not reveal which country it was.
Students: We are looking for an investigation
The informal organization Students Against Violence also raised doubts about the regularity of the elections, which is why they first joined the opposition protests, and then organized street blockades in Belgrade.
They suspect vote theft, point out double or unauthorized registration, irregularities in voter registration, and deficiencies in vote counting.
The students, who in the meantime changed their name to "Borba", asked the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government (MDULS), which is responsible for the Unified Voters' List, to investigate suspicions of vote theft.
The Ministry then announced that "The Unified Voter's List is one of the most up-to-date records in the Republic of Serbia and that it has never been more organized".
"Claims about the existence of so-called 'phantom voters' are absolutely untrue and blanket," the ministry said.
They said that "until 2012, each municipality managed the voter list for itself and that such way of management had shortcomings".
"Since all data were consolidated in 2012 and the Unified Voter's List was established, full control, accuracy and up-to-date data have been ensured," the Ministry stated.
This did not calm the students' doubts, so they announced that they will ask each local self-government to see the voter list, and if they don't get an answer, they will announce the continuation of the protest.
What does Serbia say against violence?
Coalition Serbia against violence and their supporters have been protesting in front of the Republican Election Commission for days, and their officials are on hunger strike, as they state, "due to proven election fraud and unprecedented election robbery."
That's why they don't want to take part in the repeated voting at several polling stations scheduled for December 30, but are demanding the annulment of all the elections held on December 17.
"Political dissidents are arrested, students are beaten and detained, institutions defend the regime and not the law, hooligans attack protesting citizens, journalists who report on it, and property that belongs to all of us.
"Voting in such conditions makes no sense", it is stated in announcement.
They ask the competent institutions to cancel the "stolen elections" based on the demands of individuals, organizations that monitor the elections and the opposition, and to respect the requests for revising the voter list, to stop the pressure and blackmail on the voters, so that fair and honest elections can then be organized.
In the meantime, the Republican Electoral Commission has asked the competent authorities to check the data on voters that the opposition suspects are "phantom".
"The check clearly established that the largest number of voters have a registered residence and were registered in the Unified Voter's List long before the elections held on December 17, 2023, some of which were 20 years or more ago, which is an obvious proof that the coalition's claims are not correct "Serbia against violence that the number of voters with the right to vote in the Belgrade elections was artificially increased in order to influence the outcome of the held elections," said the REC.
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