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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Number of registered voters abroad increases

Belgrade, 11 January 2008

State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Diaspora Neda Maletic said today that nearly 6,000 more voters were registered abroad for voting in the presidential elections scheduled to take place on January 20, than for parliamentary elections held a year ago.

In a statement to the news agency Tanjug, Maletic explained that this time 37,172 Serbian citizens living abroad will be able to vote at 65 polling stations in 36 countries throughout the world.

She said that in 2004, 10,000 Serbian citizens were registered to vote in the presidential elections, 18,000 in the referendum on the Serbian Constitution, and 31,370 in parliamentary elections held on January 21, 2007.

According to the law on elections which regulates criteria for realising the right to vote, it is estimated that Serbia has nearly 400,000 potential voters living abroad, and that there are around three million people all over the world who are of Serbian origin, but do not have Serbian citizenship. She said that it will not be possible to vote by post or via the Internet at these presidential elections. In order to enable voting through the post or via the Internet, the consensus of many institutions is necessary, but first of all, the change of the law on elections with the consent of the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, time and money, of course. She added that one of the main reasons why such voting cannot be carried out is that Serbia does not have a centralised voter registration list, adding that in some municipalities registration lists are even made by hand.