I have observed many elections, but the elections in Serbia are far from any European standards, said MEP Andreas Schieder, who was a member of the European Parliament's mission to observe the Serbian elections. He believes that an independent investigation should be conducted, in which there will be a rerun of the elections at least in Belgrade, but under new conditions.
Schider said on N1's Studio Live that election day in Serbia was very specific, that foreign observers already knew from pre-election missions about the uneven playing field, that there was uneven representation in state media of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his party, and the opposition was had more or less limited access to the media that people were bussed in from elsewhere to vote.
"We saw these phantom vote registration accounts, we heard that 50,000 people were transferred to Belgrade, we also saw on social media a lot of pictures showing people taking pictures of their ballots, there was vote buying, bus transport and much more negative things,” Sheeder said. He emphasized that the representatives of the European Parliament want the Serbian authorities to clarify all this and to conduct an independent investigation.
Schider said the results, at least in the Belgrade city elections, would have been different if they had been better organized and there had been no fraud.
"To be clear, these are not European standards, this is far from any good election standards. I have observed many elections and I must say that these Serbian elections are far from the standards we are used to. Those who have the power and control of this election are doing a bad job for their country,” Schieder said. /BGNES
