The elections in Hungary were one of the most heated in Europe this decade, the campaign was dirty, and the election day itself did not pass without attempts to buy votes and irregularities, observation missions noted. Almost all media were controlled by the party Viktor Orban.
However, from the first hour on the website of the Hungarian Election Commission, the results were published. And that's why Viktor Orbán himself admitted defeat in the parliamentary elections at 9:30 p.m.
In Serbia, however, the election results often take longer. It should be taken into account that the elections in Hungary start and end an hour earlier than in Serbia, and Hungary has a mixed voting system that leans towards the majority, in which the advantage, like the system in America, is given to large parties. Serbia, on the other hand, has a proportional system, so it is significantly more important to have a better sample in order to find out the winner.
Counting down to three in the morning
Raša Nedeljkov, program director of Crta for "Vreme", explains that the big problem in Serbia is just the counting of votes, which is a factor that affects the later announcement of the election results.
"The first reason lies in the fact that the election committees in Serbia are untrained, they cannot carry out basic calculations," explains Nedeljkom. "Another part of the problem, which is why the counting of votes is not finished on time, is the deep mistrust among the representatives of the parties that count the votes and the numerous attempts at manipulation. It literally happens that they block each other and do not believe the counted. Thus, first one party counts the votes, then another, then the third... This is how it often ends late at night."
He gives the example of voting in New Belgrade in 2023, when votes were counted until three in the morning.
The infrastructure itself for the implementation of vote counting is at a low level, he adds, and the municipal and the Republican Election Commission have a lot of difficulties - primarily in terms of technical knowledge and capacities.
"The problem is not even that Serbia does not have that many technical capacities, the results can be reported by phone. The key obstacle is not technology, but the expertise and knowledge of the electoral boards," Nedeljkov claims.
To the question of "Vremena", why it is not possible to count the votes automatically in Serbia and announce the results on the RIK website on the same day, the Republic Election Commission did not answer until the conclusion of this text.
Were they ever elections at all?
When Crta, as an observation mission, announces the results of voting in elections, it is very important for them to provide information about irregularities along with those figures, because they believe that only then can we talk about real indicators.
"We had elections there in Zaječar where there were irregularities in 19 percent of the seats. In that case, the question arises - what does it matter what the result is?" says Nedeljkov.
That is why their reports and addresses to the public always contain an analysis that tells how much the numbers reflect the situation on the ground, buying votes, intimidation, the Bulgarian train and other irregularities.
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
