Lecture ’Diaspora Voting Rights– Between Rules and Reality’

Professor Marijana Pajvančić will give a lecture titled ’Diaspora Voting Rights – Between Rules and Reality’ on Wednesday, 18 February, at 12 o’clock, at the SASA Hall 2.

The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia stipulates that the Republic of Serbia is obliged to develop and strengthen ties between the Serbs living abroad and their homeland, and to protect the interests of its citizens outside the country.

One of the fundamental constitutional rights is the right to vote guaranteed by the Constitution to each citizen of legal age, irrespective of whether they reside in Serbia or abroad. A great number of our citizens live abroad; however, the number of voting citizens is rather small (amounting to only 31,552 registered voters in the most recent elections). This raises the question of why diaspora participation in elections is so limited.

Professor Marijana Pajvančić will focus on three topics that potentially offer the answer: 1) comparative experiences related to diaspora voting rights, 2) the participation of Serbian citizens abroad in elections across different electoral cycles and 3) research results realised by our citizens in diaspora.