administration. There can be no doubt that the REC’s composition and appointment procedure mean it fails to comply with this benchmark.22 As noted above, both the REC and polling boards comprise of core members and are extended to Objections to REC decisions and rulings are include representatives of parties contesting the filed with the REC itself, which raises the issue of conflicts of interest. election. This has given rise to the issue of the decision-making majority on the REC. According to older case law (which is still in effect), the REC ‘shall make decisions by a majority of votes of its core and extended members, and, when ruling on objections that concern issues not specifically regulated by the Law on the Election of Members of Parliament, the Commission shall apply the General Administrative Procedure Law mutatis mutandis’.23 This issue is regulated by applicable law, which stipulates that ‘the electoral administration makes decisions by a majority of votes of its core and extended members’,24 and that ‘a motion is rejected unless it receives the requisite majority of votes’.25 Nevertheless, even though the REC nurtures a spirit of collegiality, this rule led to issues in the latest election, when one electoral list was not formally accepted even though it had met all the statutory requirements because it did not receive a majority of the members’ votes. The group objected, and a repeated round of voting was held, whereupon the list did receive the requisite number of votes and was duly accepted.26. These events have also raised the question of potential conflicts of interest, since objections to the REC’s decisions are filed with the REC itself. Since the electoral administration overseeing parliamentary elections is identical in terms of its composition and appointment to bodies fulfilling these roles in presidential, provincial, and local elections, the comments outlined above concerning provisions of the LEMP that govern the REC and polling boards in parliamentary elections are equally applicable to all other electoral administration authorities. Right to object The REC administers electoral justice by ruling on objections that allege violations of electoral rights in an election and/or irregularities in the nomination or election procedure. There is a broad-based right to object, with any voter being able to file an objection against an operation or action at any polling station. The right to object is also granted to entities that propose electoral lists and the candidates themselves. By contrast, the REC cannot take action sua sponte without a formal objection having been filed, which Chad Vickery, Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections - GUARDE (2011), IFES, Arlington 23 Judgment of the Supreme Court of Serbia No. Už. 67/2000 of 13 December 2000, available at arhiva.rik.parlament.gov.rs/latinica/pravna-shvatanja-izvodi.php (accessed on 25 March 2021). 24 Article 29[3] of the LEMP, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, Nos. 35/2000, 57/2003 – Constitutional Court Ruling, 72/2003 – Other Law, 75/2003 – Other Law-Corrigendum, 18/2004, 101/2005 – Other Law, 85/2005 - Other Law, 28/2011 – Constitutional Court Ruling, 36/2011, 104/2009 – Other Law, 12/2020, and 68/2020. 25 Article 21[6] of the Rules of Procedure of the Republic Electoral Commission, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 48/2020. 26 For a detailed discussion, see Junski izbori 2020: Ilustracija problema kroz nalaze domaćih posmatračkih misija, Emilija Orestijević, „Izborna administracija: nove okolnosti, stari problemi“, u: Oko izbora 21 (2020), ur. Bojan Klačar, CeSID, Beograd. Available at cesid.rs/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Oko-izbora-21.pdf. 22 25