“We Work Until 10”: Novi Sad Students Raise Concerns Over Difficult Parliament Election Rules

Students at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad say the rules for upcoming student parliament elections make it difficult for rival groups to qualify.

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The system itself is very slow. Colleagues from the parliament, from the alliance, are trying to slow it down even further.

The faculty opened nominations on Aug. 24, with signature collection beginning the following day. Students say the timing, before the academic term starts and including weekends, limits access because many students are not on campus. The election commission has also restricted signature collection to the hours between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Nikola Popović, a candidate from the Glas list, said students who arrived before 10 a.m. but had not reached the front of the line were turned away when the offices closed. He said the list needs roughly 500 signatures and argued that the process had been made physically impossible to complete within the available hours.

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It has been designed so that it is physically impossible to complete, because they close their offices at 10 o’clock.

Students cited election laws that allow people already at a polling station after voting ends to cast their ballots. Popović said the election commission replied that this provision does not appear in its own regulations. After a meeting with the faculty administration and the commission, students received promises that more commission members would be present and that the process would accelerate. They said only two of the five commission members had been available on previous days. Popović also repeated that an election should not take place with only one list, referring to Savez studenata, the only group currently allowed to participate.

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We hope to find common ground and have fair and proper elections.