What will it be? Serbian Progressive Party be recorded in the history of political and social achievements? Like many other ruling parties in authoritarian and hybrid regimes - by corruption of eonic proportions, the criminalization and decultivization of society, the enslavement of institutions, the meaningless of democratic processes and elections, caricatured propaganda and the cult of an even more caricatured leader. These diagnoses have been uttered so many times in the slightly uncontrolled media and on social networks that they look a bit like worn-out phrases from pornographic films. A pure man, when he hears them, wants to exclaim: come on, change the record! However, it is really difficult to come up with something new in pornography, even in this political pornography in which we live. You have a limited number of poses and phrases. You won't talk about Thucydides at the height of passion or pain.
Well, when the biggest truths are said a million times, they start to sound like lies and start to backfire. In fact, it is a common paradox, especially in freakish societies, and it does not only apply to political power. With full reason, you criticize someone who, like a reverse alchemist, managed to defile every part of society, and by doing so, you are actually doing him a favor. It suits him to be perceived as someone who has enormous power, even if it is destructive, because from that perception he inherits additional strength. As security officials say that the greatest strength of the secret services lies in the reputation of their omnipotence, the entire Vučić-progressive engagement since the fall of the canopy is based on an attempt to maintain, that is, to regain the perception of omnipotence. This is what naked political violence, massive tents and the TV program "Vučić 24/7" serve.
Elections, especially the ones before us, are the best indicator of this paradox, if ever there are any. Absolutely every human being, with even slightly developed cognitive skills, who lives in Serbia or is interested in Serbia for some reason - knows that the leader, with the support of his well-known and lesser-known associates, created the Serbian Progressive Party as a machine for winning elections. And that, at any cost. There isn't a scam they haven't or won't take advantage of. As our interlocutor says, their inventiveness in this matter is incredible. Which is not strange, because they don't do anything else. The entire policy of the SNS is based on winning, buying and stealing votes in some kind of election, be it the one for the student parliament or the real parliamentary one. They don't have time to do anything else, that's why nothing in the state works. Even the night watchman does not guard, but collects votes during the day and sleeps in his bed at night.
THE PROGRESSIVES DO NOT HIDE THAT THEY STEAL ELECTIONS
Even foreigners know all that. Some even better than us. All the reports we've read, whether it's Odihr's reports or those about Serbia's progress on its "galloping" path to the EU, use diplomatic language to say very clearly: Vučić is stealing the elections! We won't go into whether they use all the pressure mechanisms to restrain him or just slap him on the ears a little. Be that as it may, the recommendations that Serbia receives pass as all democratic instructions that arrive from the West. The regime plays with them a bit, throwing them from the terrace into the ever-open septic tank. And then he messes with them a bit.
And Odihr's key recommendations, let's recall, are to carry out a real revision of the voter list with the participation of relevant institutions, political parties and civil society, to clearly separate the state from the party and prevent abuse of public functions and state resources in the election process, to prevent pressure and intimidation of voters and ensure the independence of Remo, in order to again ensure effective control of the media during the campaign. Therefore, all that the progressives will not fulfill while standing on their feet. He'd rather die under a tent than the heat.
We want to say: they are not trying very hard to convince anyone that the elections are regular in Serbia. Especially lately. On the contrary, they say the following: yes - we are stealing elections, yes - we are very strong and you can't do anything to us! And they didn't come up with anything new. Similar regimes that act on society like sulfuric acid have worked and are doing the same.
And what is the meaning of that? There is a lot of political science literature that deals with this phenomenon, for example election manipulations in Russia. Electoral fraud also serves to send a signal that the government will use all available means to maintain itself. The goal is to demotivate voters who would vote for the opposition, with the message - don't try for nothing, we will win anyway! In addition, this reduces the possibility of post-election protests that would eventually take place after the stolen elections. The maxim is that you do not have to steal a citizen's vote if you first convince him that his vote is worth nothing anyway, which again affects the reduced turnout. And that is perhaps the key issue of the elections that are ahead of us. There will be as many election "irregularities" as you want, but the key thing is whether the citizens will understand that nobody was burning until dawn.
"MANY AUTHORITIES HAVE ALREADY FALLEN, SO YOU, MY DEAR, WILL FALL TOO"
Well, somewhere it works, and somewhere it doesn't. Many authorities lost the game in which everything was arranged in advance. The poet said: "Many governments have already fallen, so you too, my dear, will fall." We don't have to search through political science literature, it's enough to remember Milošević. Or take a look across the stall, to Hungary, where many thought that Vučić's son Viktor Orban would rule forever due to corruption, media darkness and electoral fraud, and here he is now, cringing every now and then when someone opens the door. He thinks they came for him. And there is every chance that Vučić is also ripe to fall and that, no matter how hard he tries and whatever he does, hardly anyone except the "underdogs", and not all of them, believes that he is omnipotent. He looks more like someone who has been packed into the barn of history. And that soon, when we see him in all his misery when he is without dozens of cameras following him, we will ask how something like him could have happened to us.
Politics is a strange thing. One moment everything is going your way, and then the same thing starts to bury you. Maybe the latest media Alpac management will come back to Vučić like a boomerang, no matter how much money he throws at him. Many are angry, even those around him, and only a few dare to tell him so. In addition, he has a very serious opponent in these elections who, unlike him, has not revealed all his cards. Opposite him, there are also citizens who have matured politically and know how to be a coward.
About what awaits us in the next elections, when it comes to the progressive imagination for electoral "management", we spoke with Raš Nedeljkov from Crta, Radivoj Jovović, a political scientist and member of the Assembly of AP Vojvodina, and Ana Jakovljević, who, as a representative of the Serbian People's Movement, was a member of the Working Group for the Improvement of the Electoral Process in accordance with the recommendations of Odihr, that is, the working group that was abandoned by the opposition representatives at the beginning of last year, and after them by people from civil society. After that, the Commission for revision, verification and control of the accuracy and updating of the voter list was formed, whose members were appointed by the Parliament of Serbia, and which also includes representatives of the NPS, with whom our interlocutor cooperates.
photo: Aleksandar Barda / FonetOUT OF 54 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTION PROCESS, ONLY TWO PRIORITY WERE FULFILLED: Republic Election Commission
"ODIHR AT FULL CAPACITY"
Crta has profiled itself in recent years as a respectable organization for controlling and improving the electoral process, as well as for researching the political preferences of citizens. Program director Raša Nedeljkov reminds us at the beginning of the conversation that Odihr made 54 recommendations for improving the electoral process in Serbia, 15 of which are priority. In Crta's opinion, he says, only two priority recommendations from the last two election cycles, the Republican and the Belgrade, have been fulfilled - one refers to the introduction of a reasonable limit on campaign expenses, and the other to the introduction of standardized, mandatory training in Rik for members of the election committee.
"Odihr will give an assessment of the fulfillment of its recommendations after the elections are over. The fact that Odihr decided to send an observation mission to the elections in Serbia in full capacity speaks volumes about the election conditions. In this way, Odihr does not observe elections in countries that do not give reason to doubt the integrity of the electoral process," says Nedeljkov.
Nedeljkov says that the government calls for the fulfillment of Odihr's recommendations when it makes a decision on new screens for polling stations, and in fact "those screens are trying to obscure the view of key problems that are persistently not solved, and Odihr has been repeating them for years": huge media inequality of participants in elections, pressure on voters, misuse of public resources and erasure of the border between the state and the party in power...
"Some incomplete steps have been taken towards greater transparency of voter records and the Commission for Reviewing the Voter List was formed, but it is not working at the expected pace and until the upcoming elections - if they are indeed called for October - it will not come out with a report on the state of the voter list, so it has no theoretical chance to offer arguments that could influence the growth of public trust in the voter list. Let me remind you that according to Crta's public opinion survey, even 47 percent of citizens do not believe that the state can to ensure the accuracy of the voter list", says Nedeljkov.
"RESTORE NORMALITY IN THE ELECTION PROCESS"
He also points out that the situation in the media is deteriorating in real time, right before our eyes.
"While your text is being written, we are witnessing the risk that the extremely bad state of pluralism in the media will soon become even worse, due to the controversial transfer of the media from Adria News Network to the hands of a new owner. It is justified to fear that we will move even further away from the media equality of the participants in the elections, i.e. from the fundamental democratic standard that citizens can make an informed decision in the elections. Reality, like an incident, breaks through into the media close to the government, so at times we see the outlines of another huge problem that has burdened the elections for many years - dense networks of political clientelism within which the government gives (or just promises) jobs, social benefits and other 'privileges' to citizens for votes", says our interlocutor.
Nedeljkov adds that Crta has long been insisting on the topic of political pressures exerted on citizens.
"The example of the unfortunate man who, as he told the president, lost his job at the utility company in Merošina, is a miniature illustration of the system of threats, blackmail and 'services', about which people still generally avoid speaking openly, not believing that there are institutions that could protect them. The border between the state and the party is continuously being erased, which is reflected in the uncontrolled abuse of public resources and functions, i.e. the accumulation of illegal advantages by one party," states Nedeljkov.
According to him, the fact that the local elections that were held in the last year or so have shown an increase in violence - experiences from Bor, Kula, Bajina Bašta, etc. cause particular concern.
"We have to restore normality to the election process - to run and vote in elections without any fear or risk," he says.
"DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES"
However, Nedeljkov says that the next parliamentary elections will be different from all the previous ones in the last 14 years.
"The difference is already clear - after a long time, the elections will have a truly competitive character, since there is political competition due to which the results are uncertain. This is good news for democracy, but it may mean that the parties in power will defend themselves with even greater pressure on citizens, the media, political opponents, observers, as well as with even greater abuse of state and public resources, with even more media darkness," he adds.
He points out that a strong political alternative has emerged in Serbia despite the circumstances in which "the government firmly controlled almost the entire institutional and public space."
"This indicates that, despite the further deterioration of election conditions, a high level of mobilization and serious preparation to protect the integrity of the election process, including filling all election committees with trained members, can contribute to the fact that the results credibly reflect the electoral will of voters," concludes Nedeljkov.
"A FAIR REVISION OF THE VOTER LIST ONLY WHEN THE REGIME FALLS"
Radivoje Jovović, political scientist and member of the provincial parliamentary group "Vojvodina uz studente", said in an interview with "Vreme" that it is clear that the "zero problem" of the elections in Serbia is the voter list, but that apparently it will be possible to count on its fair revision only after the fall of the Serbian Progressive Party regime. After the voter list, for Jovović, the key problem is "the complete inequality of the entire election environment".
"This implies the regime's misuse of public finances and other resources, pressures on public sector workers (especially workers with fixed-term contracts), but also pressures in those parts of the private sector where people close to the regime appear as employers. A particularly severe form of pressure will be blackmail and intimidation of users of social services and various forms of social security - people whose existence directly depends on the decisions of public authorities," says Jovović.
He also underlines the problem with the additional narrowing of free media space, as a result of changes in the ownership and editorial structure of media from Adria News Network.
"This campaign will be one of the most serious examples of unequal access to the media. This is only followed by the official campaign - especially of the president of the republic - which is already breaking all the rules of good taste and legal sense, and shows that it will be the largest so far," he states.
photo: zorica popovićTHE POLICE ARE EXPECTED TO AGAIN PROTECT THE REGIME BEATERS: A 2025 scenario.
"VOTERS MUST HAVE A FULL SENSE OF PROTECTION, SECURITY AND CIVIL SOLIDARITY"
On election day, Jovović expects the organized bringing of "phantom voters" from neighboring countries, but in that sense also "political abuse of refugees, migrants, and even foreign workers employed in companies in close relations with government representatives."
"I also expect manipulation of the votes of people who vote outside their polling station (elderly and immobile people...). The fear of defeat will force the regime to resort to ever more serious violence and intimidation of voters, as well as pressure on members of the polling boards and the violation of numerous procedural rules that may seem small individually, but collectively can seriously affect the election outcome. That is why it will be extremely important that each polling station is well covered by controllers and independent observers, and of particular importance will be strong and well an international observation mission was sent", says Jovović.
He believes that the presence of citizens and members of activist and political organizations on the streets on election day, as well as observers outside the polling stations, will be extremely important.
"Voters must have a full sense of protection, security and civic solidarity, which the police will not provide them in any way, but will once again stand in the protection of the regime's thugs; likewise, abuses of the electoral process that take place outside the polling stations must be prevented. If the regime achieves a 'victory' through obvious abuse and theft of the election, the institutions cannot be counted on to prevent it. In such a case, it is necessary to react immediately, so as not to miss the key moment for the expression of civil disapproval. The number of citizens who will come to the streets during the election night is necessary, and those who cannot, to come out to the squares of their cities and villages. There will be a need for organized civil disobedience, even when the institutions refuse to protect it," says Jovović.
WHAT DID SHE LOOK LIKE? "REVISION"?
With Ana Jakovljević, MP of the National Movement of Serbia, we talk about what the "real revision of the voter list with the participation of relevant institutions, political parties and civil society" looked like in practice, which was requested by ODIHR and EU representatives.
"The voter's list is in chaos, and the government declaratively shows its willingness to fix it, while essentially doing everything to prevent a serious revision from being carried out. The commission noticed serious omissions in the voter's list, but the government obstructs the work of this body at every step. Based on the painstakingly collected data, the People's Movement of Serbia made analyzes that we will soon present to the public. Through this commission, we were able to peek into the 'black box' and recognize certain trends. Unfortunately, some things we only suspected before now they are confirmed", she says in an interview with "Vreme".
According to her, the obtained data are not yet sufficient for a complete picture, but they allow the opposition to gradually assemble a "mosaic" of ways in which the voter list is manipulated.
"They are very creative when it comes to electoral fraud," claims Jakovljević. "Pressure from all sides is therefore very important, in order to get as much information as possible, anticipate their next step and try to prevent it."
Jakovljević says that the regime interprets Odihra's recommendations in its own way. He cites the issue of polling booths as one of the examples. He claims that the RIK is trying to introduce screens, which facilitates the so-called "Bulgarian train", that is, the control of voters and their ballots. "They say that it is a recommendation from Odihr, which is not true," she states.
When asked whether, with the political will of the authorities, the voter list, from the formation of the Commission in January of this year until today, could have been significantly adjusted, Jakovljević answered in the affirmative.
"When you have the political will, then you can do anything. Let's give an example. As a working group, we asked the Ministry of the Interior for information on addresses. In the end, we received information that they allegedly do not have addresses for 80 percent of people. We were confused. The question arises, how do they find people at addresses if they do not have information on where they live for 80 percent of them," she says.
All in all, according to the words of our interlocutor, there is currently no theoretical possibility of any relevant changes to the voter list before the elections, if they are held in October, as announced. And the voter list, according to her, is the "black hole" of elections in Serbia.
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!
