The online survey “Your view on elections in Serbia’s cities and municipalities” (26 April 2024, N=114) reveals a paradox of contemporary local voting: citizens are willing to participate and understand the importance of local government—but they experience the electoral environment as deeply compromised.
When asked about the competences of local self-government, only 2.61% say they do not know, while 42.61% claim they do know, and a majority (53.91%) say they are partially familiar. This suggests that apathy is not primarily a consequence of ignorance, but rather of political experience and the assessment that voters’ will is hard to translate into real change.
Almost all respondents have a habit of turning out for local elections: 46.09% vote “always,” and another 46.09% vote “almost always.” However, when the question shifts to 2024, the picture becomes more tense: 46.96% say they will vote, but 27.83% announce they will not, while 17.39% are undecided. Another 7.83% note that there are no elections in their municipality this year. In other words, the electoral calendar and political fragmentation generate uncertainty even among people who are otherwise regular voters.
Motives for voting are mostly “classic,” but with a pronounced local angle: civic duty, the desire to take part in decision-making, solving коммунal problems, fighting the “construction mafia,” and an explicit wish to remove SNS/SPS from power. The answers show that local elections are not secondary—they are a space where everyday life is decided.
The key finding is a brutally negative evaluation of electoral conditions. At the national level, 85.22% rate them as “very bad,” and 12.17% as “bad.” At the city/municipality level, 76.52% say “very bad,” and 19.13% “bad.” So, in both cases, more than 95% of respondents see local elections as a process without fair conditions.
In that context, the question of party participation gains special weight: while 42.61% believe the opposition should take part, almost as many (46.96%) think the opposite—that it should not—clearly reflecting the dilemma of “boycott or participate.” At the same time, 60% say they are ready to get involved in activities to improve electoral conditions—most often as election monitors/observers, through protests, public information campaigns, and civil disobedience.
This sample is not representative, but it is politically indicative: local elections are recognized as important, yet without restoring trust in the “rules of the game,” turnout and legitimacy remain in question.