Early elections for deputies of the Skupstina are taking place in Serbia. Polling stations opened at 9:00 Moscow time and will close at 22:00 Moscow time.
Before voting, each citizen's finger is checked under an ultraviolet lamp - this is how repeat participation in elections is excluded. Then members of the polling station commission check whether the person is on the voter list and verify the person by foreign passport or identity card. After that, the finger is marked with a special dye and a ballot is issued.
In total, the RIK registered 6.5 million voters. Around 115,000 Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija will vote in areas of the central part of the country adjacent to the region - in the cities of Vranje, Raska, Kursumlija and Tutin.
Nineteen political forces are taking part in the elections, competing for 250 seats in the unicameral parliament.
Aleksandar Vucic resigned as president on September 27 in order to lead the election campaign of the "United Serbia" coalition around the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SPP), which received number 1 on the ballot upon registration with the election commission.
According to opinion polls, the main competitor will be the "Student List - Students Win" list formed by protesting students, number 3. The coalition of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister "Ivica Dacic - Factor of Stability" also has a chance of passing the mandatory 3% threshold to enter the Skupstina.
For the first time, half of the political forces participating in the elections are represented by movements with the status of representatives of national minorities, which do not need to pass the 3% barrier.
Among the nine national minority political forces are three Bosniak candidate lists (Slavic Muslims), one of which includes Montenegrins, and one each of Albanian, Greek, Hungarian and Slovak. "Russian Party Serbia in BRICS - Slobodan Nikolic" and "Party of Russian-Serbian Unity - Russians and Serbs Brothers Forever" are registered as parties of the Russian national minority. As in previous years, their candidates are ethnic Serbs, with the exception in the first case of Igor Petrov from Subotica, and in the second of Belgrade artist Guzel Perovic, originally from Tatarstan.