Are You Voting From Abroad?

When we rode our bikes to Strasbourg, people from the diaspora were already waiting for us in the cities we passed through. You opened your homes to us, found us a place to sleep, brought us food, organized receptions, and went out to the squares. In Budapest, the diaspora provided us with accommodation, and during the journey through Europe, the students spent the night in numerous cities with people originally from Serbia. When we arrived in Strasbourg after more than 1,400 kilometers, Serbian citizens living there organized accommodation for all 80 cyclists.

A few weeks later, the students went on another mission across the border, this time running almost 2,000 kilometers to Brussels. And there, people who have been physically far from Serbia for a long time but haven’t stopped following what is happening there were waiting for us. At the finish line in Brussels, the students were welcomed by citizens, mostly people from our diaspora.

Meanwhile, self-organized support groups were emerging in European cities. People organized protests, networked, spoke with the local public, and tried to make students’ demands heard outside Serbia.

That is why we are not addressing you now as people watching all this from the sidelines.

You are already a part of this. Now there’s another way to participate.

If you live, work, or study outside Serbia and have the right to vote, you can vote from abroad. But for your vote to actually reach the ballot box, there are a few things you need to do in advance.

This guide is here so that no one is left without the opportunity to vote because of a missed deadline, form, or unverified information.

Until now, we have crossed borders to reach you. On Election Day, you don’t have to cross the border for your vote to reach Serbia.

Do You Have the Right to Vote Outside of Serbia?

Citizens of the Republic of Serbia of full age who meet the legal requirements for exercising the right to vote have the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

For voting from abroad, it does not matter how long you have lived there. Maybe you left 10 years ago, maybe you are studying for one semester, maybe you are working temporarily, or you may find yourself outside Serbia on Election Day.

You do not have to change your place of residence or deregister from Serbia to vote.

But two things must be done.

First, make sure you are registered in the Single Electoral Roll.

Second, after the election is called, submit a separate request to vote in those elections according to your place of residence abroad.

They are not the same thing.

You can be properly registered in the Electoral Roll, but still not be able to vote from abroad if you have not applied for it in time.

Another important thing: an application to vote from abroad is not permanently valid. The procedure is repeated for each new election.

First Check if You Are on the Electoral Roll

This does not have to wait for the call of elections.

You can do it right now.

Single Electoral Roll is a permanent record and is regularly updated. You must be registered to vote.

You can check through the official portal:

For verification, enter your JMBG and the nine-digit registration number from your ID card.

If your data is correct, you’re done.

If they are not, react immediately.

You Are Not on the Electoral Roll? That Can Be Corrected

Don’t give up just because you are not listed.

You can submit a request to be registered in the Electoral Roll to the competent municipal or city administration. The Electoral Roll is updated throughout the year, so you do not have to wait for the elections to be called to request registration or correction of data. You can request a change if you are not registered, if some information is incorrect, or if another change is needed in the records. The competent authority decides on the request within 24 hours.

If you are abroad when the elections are called, you can submit a registration request through the Serbian diplomatic-consular mission. If you are not registered in the Electoral Roll, you can start the registration and also register that you want to vote from abroad at the same time through the mission.

If you had a place of residence in Serbia before leaving, the registration is linked to that place. If you have never had a place of residence in Serbia, the last place of residence of one of your parents is relevant.

The most important thing is to avoid discovering the problem on Election Day.

Check the Documents While There Is Still Time

Take your passport out of the drawer and check the expiration date.

If it’s about to expire, don’t wait for the campaign to deal with it.

You submit a request for a new biometric passport abroad in person to the diplomatic-consular mission that handles these tasks. The legal deadline for resolving a request submitted abroad can be up to 60 days.

That’s why this is one of the things that you should check long before elections.

At the polling station, identity is established by looking at an ID card or other appropriate public document with a photo and JMBG, such as a travel document.

If you have any doubt about the document you plan to use to identify yourself, check with your diplomatic-consular mission before Election Day.

Don’t let a few years of living in another country become less important than a single expiration date on your passport.

The Elections Are Called You Are Now Applying to Vote From Abroad

This is the moment when a special procedure begins.

From the day the election is called, voters living abroad can submit a request through the diplomatic-consular mission to enter the information in the Electoral Roll that they will vote from abroad.

The deadline is short.

You must submit the request no later than 5 days before the Electoral Roll closes.

Since the Electoral Roll closes 15 days before the election, this means the deadline is 20 days before Election Day.

Do not treat those 20 days as the time to register.

That’s the deadline.

Apply as soon as the elections are called.

Where Are You Applying?

Through the Serbian diplomatic-consular mission.

Find the embassy or consulate responsible for where you are staying, and check its instructions for the relevant election.

After the election is called, the missions publish information on registration, forms, and the contact details for submitting the request.

Sending a request does not mean the process is complete, so save everything you send and receive.

What Must the Request Contain?

The request to vote from abroad must contain your name and surname, JMBG, municipality or city, address of residence in Serbia, and the place and address of residence abroad where you wish to vote. You must also sign the request.

The diplomatic-consular mission forwards the request to the competent municipal or city administration according to your place of residence in Serbia, which issues a decision on the request.

If you are not registered in the Electoral Roll, say so immediately and submit a registration request.

Don’t assume that one request will automatically solve another problem.

Ask for Information About Your Data

Along with the application to vote from abroad, you can also request notification of the data entered about you in the Electoral Roll through the diplomatic-consular mission.

It is not a requirement so you could later vote, but it is a useful additional check.

The law allows a voter residing abroad to request notification of their data from the competent city or municipal administration through the mission.

To simplify: if you can already check, check.

The election process is important enough not to rely on “I guess it’s all over.”

Have You Sent a Request? Check if They Received It

As in the initial diaspora guide, this remains a crucial recommendation: do not just send an email and forget about it.

If you don’t get confirmation, call the mission.

If the reply is late, ask.

If you can check in person, check.

Save emails, forms, confirmations, and decisions.

An administrative error shouldn’t decide who gets to vote, but if it does, it’s much easier to react while there is still time than on Election Day itself.

If There Are More of You in One City, Connect

This is something the diaspora has already shown it can do.

In the past year or so, support groups were not created by someone from Serbia sending instructions on what to do. People found one another, organized protests and logistics, helped students, and connected those living in the same city.

The same thing is essential for voting.

A polling station is preferably designated for at least 100, and at most 2,500 voters. However, 100 is not an absolute limit. With the consent of the REC, a polling station can be designated for fewer voters if, because of long distance or an unfavorable geographical location, going to another polling station would be significantly more difficult.

So it makes sense to know how many people in your city want to register.

If everyone stays home because they think they are “probably the only one,” the polling station may not be open.

If you register, there is proof that you are there.

The diaspora has already organized itself to welcome us. Now organize yourself to get to the polling station together.

Where Will the Voting Actually Take Place?

Voting is not automatically in every embassy and every consulate.

The Republic Electoral Commission (REC) determines polling stations abroad on the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no later than 20 days before Election Day.

When the REC announces the decision, check where your polling station is.

It may not be the diplomatic mission closest to you, so don’t plan your trip until you see the official location.

If you submitted a request to vote from abroad, the competent administration decides on it, and the information about the place of voting is included in the Electoral Roll for that election.

Check if everything is correct.

What Happens When You Get a Decision?

Don’t just put it in the folder and forget about it.

Check the name and surname, date, country, and voting location.

If something is not right, react immediately.

The decision is valid only for the elections for which you submitted a request. You apply again in the next election.

Election Day Has Come

When you come to the polling station, the members of the polling board first check your identity and whether you are on the Electoral Roll extract for that station.

You need a valid ID card or other appropriate public document with a photo and JMBG, such as a passport.

After the check, you sign the Electoral Roll extract form and receive a ballot.

Then you go behind the screen.

There is one important rule that applies equally in Belgrade, Vienna, Strasbourg, or Sydney.

Voting is personal and secret.

No one has the right to stand next to you and watch what you circle. A member of the polling board must not tell you who to vote for. Another voter must not vote for you. No one has the right to ask you to take a photo of your ballot as proof.

When you vote, fold the paper and put it in the box.

If something is wrong, don’t just walk away.

This is especially important.

If you come to vote and they tell you that you are not on the Electoral Roll, if they claim that you have already voted even though you have not, if someone is trying to influence your vote, or if the secrecy of your vote is threatened in any way, reach out immediately.

First, address the members of the polling board.

The student electoral list has the right to nominate its members and deputy members of the polling board in an expanded composition, including polling stations abroad.

If a member of our polling board is at your polling station, find them and explain what happened.

You don’t need to know the law.

You need to know the name of the legal remedy that needs to be filed later.

You need to say what happened while there is still time to react.

Our members of the polling board are there to participate in the board’s work, insist that procedures are followed, and ensure irregularities are not covered up.

Accredited observers can monitor the work of electoral bodies. Their role is not the same as that of polling board members, but they can record what they see during the observation process.

On Election Day, you should not be left alone with the thought “something is wrong here”.

If You Are Denied the Right to Vote

If the members of the polling board unjustifiably prevented you from voting, or somebody violated your right to free and secret voting at the polling station, you have the right to request the annulment of the vote at that polling station.

For a polling station abroad, the Republic Electoral Commission decides on that request.

The deadline for submission is 72 hours after the polling station closes.

This is a significant correction from the earlier version of the guide on the site, which specified a 24-hour deadline.

So, if a problem occurs, don’t wait.

Write down the polling station number, time, what happened, and who was present. Save the documentation you have and contact the people who can help to record the irregularity immediately.

After the Election, You Can Check What Was Recorded

Election Day is over, but your ability to check the data is not.

If you want to know if it was recorded in the extract from the Electoral Roll that you voted, you can search for that information.

This is especially important if you did not vote, but suspect that a vote was registered under your name.

Your name on the Electoral Roll is not something you have no control over.

You have the right to check what is recorded.

Why Is It Important to Register?

It is not because the diaspora needs to be “activated” only now, as elections near.

The diaspora was already active.

We saw it when you were waiting for us after a hundred kilometers of cycling. When you’ve made beds for people you’ve never met before. When you brought them food. When you made welcomes in the cities where you built new lives. When you organized protests without someone from Serbia telling you where to stand and what to hold in your hands.

Many of you did not leave because you stopped loving this country.

Some left precisely because they could no longer live with the way it operated.

And that is why it would be wrong to talk about the diaspora only as people who come home once a year, send money to their families, or wonder whether they will ever return.

You are citizens of this country.

If you have the right to vote, you also have the right to decide.

Don’t let kilometers decide for you.

Check the Electoral Roll. Look at the documents. When the elections are called, register on time. Check if the request has been received. Connect with people from your city.

For more than a year, we showed each other that distance was not an obstacle to standing on the same side.

It doesn’t have to be on Election Day.

We have come to you. Now, we need to reach victory together.