Sofija Mandić, a member of the Republic Electoral Commission (REC), pointed out at the Commission’s meeting today that the principle requiring the number of ballot papers to match the number of voters had been called into question in the Pčinja District, as excess ballots were found in municipalities that had requested that election materials be counted during the handover.
Speaking under miscellaneous business, Mandić said that the chair of one polling station committee in Vranje claimed he had not been informed that he needed to collect the election materials, while his deputy had been notified.
She said that during the meeting she had spoken with the president of the City Electoral Commission (CEC) in Vranje, who told her that the polling station committee chair had not answered his phone, forcing them to contact his deputy.
REC member Željka Radeta, who is responsible for the Pčinja District, said she had spoken with the president of the CEC in Vranje, who confirmed that the chair of one polling station committee had been unreachable throughout the day, so it was agreed that the materials would be handed over to his deputy.
According to her, the chair and his deputy are neighbors, and when the chair saw that his deputy had brought the materials, he notified the police. Radeta said the police did not draw up an official report and that a request to open the sack was rejected because of the security seal, with the explanation that the materials would be opened on Sunday at 6:00 a.m.
She said that on Sunday, CEC members and representatives of the authorities and the opposition would come to the polling station, open the sack and check against the inventory to verify whether all the materials were inside.
Radeta said that two extra ballot papers had been found in Trgovište, while Fadil Aliti, the third member of the group responsible for the Pčinja District, told her that 10 ballot papers were missing at one polling station in Bujanovac.
Aliti pointed out that, in addition to the shortage of 10 ballot papers, there had also been an incident in which two polling station committee chairs collected the wrong sacks and subsequently exchanged them with each other.
Mandić said that the meeting had so far established that sacks had been switched twice, in Preševo and Bujanovac, while a third incident involved a sack being handed over to a deputy instead of the polling station committee chair.
REC member Marko Danilović asked where the plates used to print the election materials were kept, noting that they had previously been brought to the REC and sealed.
REC President Vladimir Dimitrijević said this would be checked, but added that he had no doubt everything had been done in accordance with procedure.
REC member Ivan Šebak said he remembered receiving an invitation to the start of ballot paper printing, but did not recall receiving an invitation to witness the destruction of excess materials and the materials used for printing.
Šebak, who is responsible for Belgrade, said there had been problems in Mladenovac, where one number was initially entered for voters requesting to vote outside their polling stations, before being replaced with another after the director of a gerontology center submitted a list of 99 people wishing to vote. He asked, “Who is she to do that?”
Today, the Republic Electoral Commission rejected a voter’s complaint as having been submitted by an unauthorized person. The complaint concerned numerous campaign materials belonging to election participants in the courtyards of schools where polling stations will be located.
As stated at the meeting, the complainant alleged that political symbols, including murals, graffiti and stickers belonging to political organizations, were present in the courtyards of schools serving as polling stations—particularly the Third and Fourteenth Belgrade Grammar Schools—as well as in their immediate surroundings. The complainant requested that these locations be cleared of the materials.
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Source: Danas Foto:Beta/Branislav Božić
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