According to Nemanja Nenadić, the prosecution should initiate proceedings for the potential criminal offense of giving and accepting bribes in connection with voting from Article 156 of the Criminal Code, colloquially known as “vote buying”.
“It is related to a situation where some people, regardless of whether they are party supporters or work for a party, are offered something – some money or some additional work, and in return they are asked to vote for a certain party, a certain list in the elections.”
Also, Nenadić says that another violation of the law could be a violation of the secrecy of voting, as it is required that a photo of the ballot be submitted to the coordinator, that is, to a third party.
“I believe that the publication of this article is reason enough for the prosecution to investigate possible giving and accepting bribes in connection with voting and violating the secrecy of voting,” says Nenadić.
Nenadić adds that parties are not forbidden from hiring individual external associates or specialized agencies to provide such services, but they have a duty to report these expenses, both in the preliminary and in the final report on campaign costs. He says those reports contain sections that refer to various types of expenses, including telephone expenses, but there are none that specifically refer to this type of activity.
“Therefore, when the Anti-Corruption Agency looks into the preliminary and final expense reports of SNS’s campaign for this election, it should also request additional information on where the expenses mentioned in CINS’s article were reported.”
As a reminder, CINS published an article today in which it uncovers how SNS’s call center functions, from which more than 100 people call citizens every day and ask them if they will vote for the Serbian Progressive Party in the upcoming elections. In this new investigation, we revealed that a well-organized group is behind it all, that daily wages are paid cash-in-hand, raising suspicions of using “black money”, and that a condition for the job is voting for SNS in the upcoming elections on 17 December.
Everything was witnessed first-hand by a CINS journalist who was briefly part of this group.
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