1990: Polling Station Bar

"People were sitting around drinking beer in the Good Soul bar in Obrenovac on December 23 1990, the day of the elections. In one corner, the TV was on showing reports of a Chetnik killing a man. The official election poster called people to vote for "a better life, for peace, the future of your children", repeating the Socialists election slogan. There was a walkie-talkie on the owner’s table and the polling station was in one corner. A member of the election commission politely passes out ballot papers, pressing down on the name of the Socialist candidate. The owner comes in with his family picks up their ballots and votes for them all. His partner tells his wife to vote for Miladin. A young DS member and official observer warns him that he’s breaking the election law. The owner turns on him angrily and throws him out of the bar, then follows him with several others to write down the number of his license plates."

(VREME, January 7, 1991)

1992: Law Suit

On December 16, 1992, the federal overseeing board was informed of the law suit filed by the Serbian PEN Center in Belgrade against the Serbian state TV (RTS) which demanded a ban on certain reports during the election campaign which are upsetting the public: "The activities of the RTS include statements calling for the use of force, as in the evening news of September 6, 1992 which said there are people in Serbia who want to see Belgrade bombed and openly threatened that armed Serbs from the Krajina would come to the aid of Serbia".

1996: 100% Vote

The Djelekare polling station in the electoral unit of Vranjem in the Vitina municipality had an electoral roll of 1,217 voters. All 1,217 turned out, all cast valid ballots and all voted for the SPS-JUL-ND coalition. The Malisevo polling station in the same district in Gnjilane municipality had 2,102 valid ballots all cast for the SPS-JUL-ND coalition.

(Professor Zoran Lucic, member of the 1996 federal election commission in his paper The Elections - A Look From Inside, Republika issue 158)

30,000 Monitors

There are 10,078 polling stations in Serbia and 878 in Montenegro. To control the elections, any party has to have a voter board member and a deputy at each station as well as a certain number of others to gather information, react on time, inform the public, communicate with the authorities, tour polling stations etc. That means that each party needs 30,000 people at polling stations to control the elections.