As part of the program Regional Initiative for combating disinformation “Western Balkans Combatting disinformation Center: Exposing malicious influences through fact-checking and Analytical Journalism“, we present you a new analysis of fake news and disinformation narratives.
The shock troops of the blockaders: See who arrived in Negotin on election day
https://informer.rs/politika/vesti/1070624/izbori-u-negotinu-lazni-veterani-darija-stjepic
On the last day of November, local elections were held in three smaller municipalities in Serbia—Mionica, Negotin, and Sečanj. After months of political crisis, marked by the largest protests in Serbia’s modern history and by the protest movement’s demand for snap parliamentary elections, which the authorities have refused to call, all local elections in the recent period have been conducted in a volatile and tense atmosphere.
This was also the case in Negotin, Mionica, and Sečanj. In the local elections, in addition to the ruling bloc, lists also took part that were formed by students from these communities, together with local movements and branches of opposition parties.
The election results showed that the trend of a decline in the overall number of votes for the ruling parties continues. Although they did secure victories in Mionica, Negotin, and Sečanj, this was accompanied by significant results achieved by opposition–student lists. Election day in all three locations was marked by tensions, incidents, and even clashes in the vicinity of polling stations in these municipalities, along with reports by observer missions of threats to the safety of participants in the electoral process.
Although activists and members of the ruling parties are responsible for most of the incidents—which recur from one election cycle to the next—pro-regime media actively reported on alleged acts of violence and attempts at vote-buying by opposition parties in the elections in Negotin, Mionica, and Sečanj. Thus, Informer, the highest-circulation pro-government tabloid, in an article with the suggestive headline “The Shock Troops of the Blockaders: See Who Arrived in Negotin on Election Day,” wrote that “the blockaders want to disrupt things at any cost, so their shock troops arrived there… among the first to arrive, in order to provoke citizens, were fake veterans.” Informer wrote that “a baton was found on one of the fake veterans,” and that “in Sečanj, an incident was also recorded… there, voters at one polling station were greeted by a bloody hand, the symbol of the blockaders and the color revolution.”
Informer also reported in a bombastic manner on questionable and unverified allegations of vote-buying by opposition actors in Negotin. It was emphasized that “there is suspicion that the blockaders, with insignia such as red armbands and badges with bloody hands, are buying votes… the note was made after a citizen of Negotin reported suspicious activities on the way to his polling station… he explained that he paid attention to the whole situation because he found it suspicious that the girls were wearing the mentioned armbands, as well as that the car had Kragujevac license plates… he described how he suspected that the girls had given money to the aforementioned person.”
While Informer reports in an extremely sensationalist manner on alleged pressure and manipulation at polling stations by opposition actors, it completely ignores the fact that observer missions, such as CRTA, have confirmed that the integrity of the electoral process was seriously compromised and that numerous irregularities were recorded, orchestrated by activists and members of the ruling party.
Author: Igor Mirosavljević
