Serbian court rejects student-backed election list's appeals over overseas voting

Oglas

According to rulings published on the court's website, the appeals challenged voting hours and the designation of polling stations outside Serbia, the FoNet news agency reported.

In a judgment issued on October 16, the court ruled that RIK had correctly applied the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament when it decided that voting at overseas polling stations would last 13 hours and end no later than 8 p.m. Serbian time.

The Student List argued that Serbian citizens voting abroad should be able to cast their ballots between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time in their respective countries.

The list cited Australia, New Zealand, Chicago and New York as examples of locations where the commission's decision would require voting during nighttime hours.

However, the court found that the legal provision establishing voting hours from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. could not be interpreted independently of another provision authorising RIK to determine voting hours abroad while taking time zones into consideration.

It concluded that overseas voting was governed by a specific legal framework.

The court also addressed the Student List's argument that RIK had previously allowed voting between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time in foreign countries.

According to the judgment, commission decisions from 2016, 2017, 2020 and January 2022 were adopted under different legal provisions and therefore did not establish a binding precedent.

The court further ruled that decisions issued in March 2022 and November 2023 did not constitute a sufficiently established administrative practice that would require the commission to justify changing its approach.

Both appeals were dismissed as unfounded, leaving the commission's disputed overseas voting arrangements in place ahead of the election.

Teme