170,000 Signatures in Three Hours While Students Queue for a Notary: the Maths Requires 230 Notaries Certifying Four Signatures a Minute

The ruling Serbian Progressive Party collected 170,000 signatures in three hours. So announced Aleksandar Vucic, adding that he almost wept and thanking the wonderful people of Serbia. That same day, students collecting signatures for their own list could not find enough notaries to certify theirs - and thousands of people were left queuing across Belgrade and across Serbia.

Put those two sentences side by side and you have the complete picture of an electoral process. No commentary required.

The arithmetic that does not add up

Lawyer Rodoljub Sabic, a member of the council of the electronic media regulator, did the sum out loud: 170,000 certified signatures in three hours would require around 230 registered notaries certifying roughly four signatures a minute each. That, he says, is either science fiction or a criminal offence. There is no third option in which the arithmetic works.

Progressive Party president Milos Vucevic later gave a different figure - that 224,557 citizens had signed in support. The organisation BIRODI asked the electoral commission to reject the list if it is established that legal conditions were breached. So far the commission has confirmed just one list: "Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia".

Nobody banned anything

Here is the point worth noting. Nobody issued a decision saying students may not collect signatures. There simply were not enough notaries, despite earlier assurances that there would be. The ruling coalition went through the identical procedure without any problem at all and has already submitted its lists.

That is the most efficient way to block someone - not with a ban, but with a counter that works more slowly for some than for others. You can appeal against a ban. You cannot appeal against a queue.

Early parliamentary elections are scheduled for 25 October. The student movement called on citizens today, 14 September, to join a march to the headquarters of the Republic Electoral Commission and submit the signatures together. The question that remains is not whether they will gather them, but whether an election in which one list clears in three hours while another waits for a notary is measuring the same things for everyone who takes part in it.