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30.11.2025. 17:30h
Independent observers and MPs from certain opposition parties reported that they were exposed to threats and physical attacks during election day in Mionica, in western Serbia.
The Green Left Front (ZLF) announced that a member of parliament from the opposition party was attacked on Sunday afternoon in Mionica.
“Radovanović was hit in the head multiple times with a metal bar and his mobile phone was stolen,” the ZLF said.
They say they reported the incident to the police, who did not react.
This party says that independent election observers and opposition MPs were followed by masked figures who threatened them throughout election day in Mionica.
Previously, the Crta observation mission announced that it was suspending monitoring of the local elections in Mionica, because the “safety” of their observers was “seriously threatened.”
“We made the decision after a mobile team of Crta observers in Mionica was attacked by a group of unknown men. They blocked the passage and tried to break the windows of the car in which the two girls were, in full view of the police, who did not react,” they said in a statement.
Crta also states that police officers at the station refused “an explicit request from our lawyer to make an official note of the event.”
“Mionica, by the way, has been full of men with caps, almost ‘uniformed’ in black, since early morning, who move in larger groups, and our female observers are not the only victims of attacks and threats,” says Crta.
In Negotin and Mionica in Serbia, citizens are voting in regular elections on November 30, while in Sečanj, early elections are being held following the resignation of the municipal president, Nebojša Meljevac, from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
In all three municipalities, the current government is made up of a coalition led by the SNS, which also holds power at the republic level.
Since the beginning of anti-government protests in Serbia, a “second showdown” between the government and its opponents has been taking place in these municipalities.
Polling stations will be open until 20 p.m., reports the Beta agency. Election silence is also underway, which began 48 hours before election day and will last until the polling stations close.
Negotin is the largest of the three municipalities where elections have been called. According to the 2022 census, it has a population of around 43.500. The local parliament has 45 councilors, and citizens will choose from four electoral lists.
Six electoral lists are participating in Mionica, from which 39 councilors will be elected.
In Sečanj, 23 councilors are being elected to the local parliament from five electoral lists.
Five months earlier, amid student protests, local elections were held in Zaječar and Kosjerić. Both places were ultimately won by the ruling coalition, but the elections were marked by high tensions.
Independent observers reported that the elections were “neither free nor fair,” as stated in a European Parliament resolution adopted in October.
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