The Zaječar-Kosjerić Playbook: How Europe’s Accession Process Enables Electoral Crime

The path of several states emerging from the dissolution of former Yugoslavia toward European Union membership has persisted almost since their independence. Decades later, some European powers and Brussels are making every effort to ensure these states never become part of the European Union, employing local subcontractors to achieve this aim.

Photo: Aleksandar Vučić

‘Everyone that lives in Kosjerić came out to vote against us, everyone. And still, there were more who voted for us,’ said Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić a few hours after the polls closed, speaking in a live television broadcast from the premises of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) which he leads, and from whose helm he formally stepped down. Vučić then announced the ‘exact’ election results, while the competent bodies for conducting the elections had not yet reported.

From such a statement, it is entirely clear what happened in one small Serbian municipality that few could find on a map without difficulty. From there, it is not hard to deduce what was happening in other places where ‘everything that lives’ did not vote for the opposition and where the eyes of the public were not focused.

Those in Brussels, whose job it is to draw conclusions about processes in the world based on much less information and indications, simply remain silent about the fact that the Serbian authorities, embodied in the figure of Aleksandar Vučić, are in every way suppressing the student rebellion demanding that their country resemble other European ones.

The Count

What the election results in Kosjerić and Zaječar really were, there are at least two versions. Both the authorities and the opposition, linked to the rebellious students, declared victory. The CRTA observer mission, long financed from sources on both sides of the Atlantic, said on election night that election day was neither fair nor free and that the election results do not reflect the will of the citizens, because the most serious irregularities were recorded at numerous polling stations.

Opposition media, activists, YouTube channels, and social media users published a multitude of video materials showing things that, to say the least, do not befit a country on the path to the European Union. The enormous police presence guarding unknown persons agitating during election day from local people, numerous cars with license plates from other cities, the presence of people dressed and behaving similarly to those in Belgrade who in the tent settlement ‘want to learn’, also did not awaken the proverbially ‘concerned’ West.

Serbian media reported on vote buying and voter intimidation, and the public has almost become accustomed to it. But shock ensued when on Tuesday some SNS voters joined people protesting electoral irregularities, demanding payment of the promised 25 to 35 euros. They told television cameras that they received a package with groceries and voted for the ruling party, but afterwards did not receive the money. In the end, one added that he doesn't even believe they will ever get the money.

Democracy Balkan-Style

There is no doubt that now, while the robbed raise a rebellion, some will ‘wisely’ note that, after all, this is only about two small local communities in Serbia and that ‘Vučić is falling’ in the next general elections, because he won't be able to control so many polling stations.

However, things are much more serious and concern all countries where Serbia has influence. In Serbia, it has been visible in recent years that a certain number of people register in a different place from election to election. In the last elections in Belgrade, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens of Serbia, were registered at transformer stations, at addresses of people abroad, or dozens were assigned the same residence with the aim of voting in local elections.

Some Montenegrin parties have been talking about this phenomenon of ‘mobile voters’ for years, but no one in the West wants to hear them. In Montenegro, with a small number of voters and fierce divisions, a few tens of thousands of votes can change the composition of the national parliament.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we had similar cases in Srebrenica, a town which, even after the genocide, does not have fair local elections. In the upcoming elections, we can expect similar things throughout the country, unless the competent bodies act differently than before.

Kosovo elections showed similar patterns of behavior. People from Serbia were brought in to vote for Vučić's close Serbian List.

Democratic elections in this way are and will be compromised throughout the Balkans because the West allows its protégés to commit electoral fraud with impunity. The claim that citizens and institutions will prevent irregularities at elections was disproved in Zaječar and Kosjerić. Citizens and the opposition could only note that irregularities were happening and that the captured state would not side with them.

Political Balkan Gymnastics by European Recipe

Worldwide, citizens' distrust in elections is growing. The introduction of new technologies has in some places led to even greater suspicion. Some even claim that undesirables will not be allowed to win.

If so, then the Balkan peoples have nothing to hope for. The West's attitude towards Vučić proves that it is possible to gain legitimacy in any kind of election, meaning voting that implies some form of ballot stuffing, as long as one commits to obedience.

In Serbia, some have long repeated that the West has given Vučić a free hand to do whatever he wants, and in return, he will ensure the mining of lithium despite local opposition, deliver weapons to Ukraine, and treat the Kosovo issue in line with Western interests.

Serbia is not an exception. Besides the mentioned examples of electoral fraud, let us recall the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina three years ago and the influence of the West via the OHR. Some claimed the elections were rigged (the Jelena Trivić case), a new election law was imposed in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity on election night, and then the competence of that same entity's vice president was taken away. A little over two years ago, the OHR imposed technical amendments to the election law that were supposed to improve the integrity of the electoral process, but experts said it did not solve the key problems.

Democracy, by its very logic, implies the possibility of a peaceful change of power, with prior participation in political life. The attitude of the West, primarily the European Union, towards Serbia and its neighbors suggests that even this may not hold true within Balkan frameworks. Such an attitude towards this part of the world is a path to rule over the people modeled on Belarus or Russia. The European Union (un)consciously imposes autocracy and an absence of law and order on the Balkan peoples, while periodically calling for respect for European standards and demanding and offering a continuation of the ‘European path’.

Students in Serbia, who are the generational chance for the country to free itself from the criminal policy led by Slobodan Milošević in power and Vojislav Šešelj in opposition, no longer carry European Union flags at their gatherings. Perhaps that's why in Brussels they should ask themselves what Serbia will look like after the day when Milošević's propaganda minister and Šešelj's party secretary finally leaves power."

This article was previously published on nap.ba.

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