Postal workers used as survey takers? Vučić letter draws warning over serious abuse

Serbia’s postal workers are reportedly delivering letters signed personally by President Aleksandar Vučić to pensioners and people receiving social assistance. According to the election-monitoring organization Crta, the operation amounts to clear political, pre-election agitation.

Crta says recipients are not only being asked for their names. Postal workers have also allegedly been instructed to collect phone numbers and signatures consenting to further notifications. Pavle Dimitrijević of Crta told N1 that the arrangement raises several questions, including why the Republic Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, if it commissioned the work, would send the president’s letters to its beneficiaries.

Dimitrijević said Crta had not found an earlier Serbian example of postal workers carrying out this kind of survey. He questioned why personal information was being gathered under the explanation that the numbers would improve communication with users.

“Would it not be more logical for the post office or any other public-service provider to update its users’ information with a regular telephone bill or another item they already receive?” Dimitrijević said. He argued that linking the data collection exclusively to Vučić’s letter and to socially vulnerable recipients points to political use of institutions for campaign purposes, even though the campaign has not officially begun.

Crta also wants answers about who paid for the deliveries. N1 said it had contacted the pension fund to ask whether it organized the operation and was seeking further information.

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Would it not be more logical for the post office or any other public-service provider to update its users’ information with a regular telephone bill or another item they already receive?