Footage From Election Night in Belgrade: 4,000 Riot Police Around the Electoral Commission While TV Stations Announced an SNS Victory

Election night in Serbia, 25 October, 9:31 pm. Footage appeared on social media from outside Belgrade City Hall: police in full riot gear moving in formation, with several dozen police vans parked in front of the building. According to the description of the footage, around 4,000 police officers were deployed around the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), and the surrounding streets were closed.

The number doesn't rest on a single Instagram post. It was confirmed by Spasoje Vulević, former commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ). Reporters on the ground that day noticed a stepped-up police presence at several locations in central Belgrade: Gendarmerie vehicles in the fenced area in front of the RIK, facing Pionirski Park, and buses of gendarmes in front of the National Assembly and the Old Palace.

The timing is key. At that moment the media were already publishing projections of an SNS victory, almost in sync. The authors of the post ask exactly that: based on what? Was there coordination between the police, political structures and the media, and who ordered such a deployment of forces?

A second video also surfaced, showing police officers taking off their riot gear - after Aleksandar Vučić announced in his address that SNS had lost the election. Three days before the vote, police director Dragan Vasiljević said the police were doing everything to make sure the election passed safely and ordered commanders to act in line with the law and professional standards.

If 4,000 riot police stand in front of the electoral commission while TV stations celebrate the government's victory, is that securing an electoral process or preparing for a result that in the end didn't come? The question of what exactly Serbia was prepared for that night now lies with the new government. Will it have the courage to ask it out loud?