Djilas to PES: Brnabic covering up election fraud, belittling observers in her letter

The SSP said Djilas “highlighted the key points in Brnabic’s letter that point to irregularities, citing head of OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission Albert Jonsson’s statement, who said that Serbian elections were unfair, marked by serious irregularities, abuse of public resources, media domination by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, negative campaigning and spreading of fear.”

“Jonsson said serious irregularities also included vote buying and bringing in of voters from other countries. In addition, Djilas also quoted head of the Council of Europe observation mission head Stefan Schennach, who repeatedly stressed that the Serbian election were unfair, adding that ‘As a politician, I can say that the victory in Belgrade was stolen from the opposition. We criticized the elections in Turkey, Macedonia, generally in the Balkans, but there have not been such elections before,’” said the SSP.

The SSP leader also quoted European Parliament member and member of its delegation Andreas Scheider, who said that vote theft, bribery, and corruption must not be allowed in the democratic world and that “reports of fraud and attempts by Vucic’s regime to influence election results are alarming,” as well as that “especially shocking is the news about buses bringing non-residents to vote in Belgrade.'’

Addressing Lofven, members of the Presidency of PES and representatives of political parties that are members of PES, Djilas wrote:

“These are just some of the quotes from members of ODIHR, CoE, and European Parliament about the elections, which Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, in her letter to PES, says: "The elections were the most thoroughly monitored in the history of Serbia, and only 13 serious irregularities were identified, which is approximately 1.07% of the total number of observed polling stations."

Mrs. Brnabic did not include in her letter her statement from December 25, 2023, where she says, I quote: “This might not be popular with those from the West, but I feel it's important to stand in defense of Serbia and thank Russian security services who shared information they had about opposition protests with us.“ Prime Minister Brnabic also didn't mention the fact that the morning after the protests in Belgrade, where the police used unnecessary force and arrested over 50 demonstrators, many of whom were high school students and university students, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had a meeting with the Russian ambassador Botsan-Kharchenko. After that meeting, Mr. Kharchenko stated that Aleksandar Vucic informed him that the Western powers were behind the opposition protests...'

Respected friends, and President Lofven, Serbia today increasingly resembles Belarus, a bit more democratic and free, just as much as our geographical position allows. The difference between Mr. Lukashenko and Vucic is only in hairstyle and mustache. Everything else is the same. In 365 days, Aleksandar Vucic appeared on national television 300 times. The opposition almost never. During the election campaign, this ratio worsened, with Aleksandar Vucic appearing on seven TV stations on the last day alone. In the last three hours before the election silence, he was a guest on the mostwatched private TV station, Pink TV, with dozens of musicians, actors, athletes, journalists. As for advertising, the ruling party spent 7 million EUR on paid slots. The united opposition spent only 200,000 EUR.

People in Serbia who support the opposition have their children expelled from kindergartens by the members of the ruling party, lose their jobs, and their cars are set on fire. People employed in state administration, municipal, and public companies are obliged to secure 20- 50 votes from their friends, photographing ballot papers to keep their jobs. Votes are bought with cash, but also with state money. Before the elections, millions of citizens, especially pensioners, received extra money from the state. Moreover, especially in Belgrade, tens of thousands of voters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, central Serbia, and Vojvodina were registered and brought in. They were registered at apartments and houses in huge numbers. About 211 voters were registered at the building of the Belgrade water supply system.

On election day, opposition monitors were harassed at polling stations; many of them left, some gave statements to the police. Observers from the largest domestic election monitoring organization CRTA had their car smashed in the yard of a police station in the town of Odzaci. The CRTA organization made these general conclusions about the elections such as ‘’Drastic abuses of voters' rights, laws, and institutions escalated on election day. Due to the extent and types of electoral abuses in Belgrade, we conclude that the results of the Belgrade elections do not reflect the freely expressed will of the voters living there’’, as stated in the CRTA report. Also they stated that ‘’Under these conditions, the legitimacy of any future local elections will be under the same suspicion unless institutions engage in determining the truth and accountability for the violation and circumvention of laws, undermining the integrity of the elections. The electoral campaign preceding such a day occurred in an environment of pronounced inequality in favor of the ruling coalition and continuous abuse of Serbian state institutions as channels for gaining unfair advantages and conducting a negative campaign against political opponents, thus blurring the line between the state and the political party."

I don't want to take any more of your time, but I could list dozens more examples of evidence that Ms. Brnabic presented a series of untruths in the letter she sent to you. Instead, I invite you to support the pro-European opposition in Serbia, in which the Party of Freedom and Justice, a proud member of PES, that is the party with the largest support among citizens. Support us in demanding the annulment of the elections in Serbia and for Europe to send a special commission to investigate all irregularities and propose how to achieve democratic elections in Serbia. This is of immense importance not only for Serbia and its European perspective but for the entire Western Balkans.”