1. Introductory notes Resolving electoral disputes is one of the most sensitive aspects of the electoral process and has a decisive bearing on the integrity of elections. Nevertheless, this issue has rarely commanded the attention of the broadest Serbian public due to both its opacity as a narrowly technical field and the (perhaps excessive) emphasis on other topics, primarily the role of the media and events on Election Day. Electoral justice has thus often been confined to a limited circle of lawyers or those with close knowledge of the electoral process. The topic has gained in importance given the context in which Serbian elections take place: firstly, Serbia is yet to develop and build stable electoral procedures and institutions (the country has seen a basically normalized electoral process only in the past 20 years, even though it displays traits of a deepseated traditional political culture nurtured in socialist Yugoslavia during the time of political monism), and, secondly, electoral law remains deeply influenced by political parties and organisations (with the electoral administration particularly strongly affected), which makes it difficult to promote public trust in elections and the electoral process as a whole.1 That is why the primary idea behind this study is to highlight the importance of electoral justice as a vital pillar of the electoral process, and, more specifically, to enhance knowledge about this area, familiarise the public with legal safeguards, build capacities of political parties and organisations, and identify priority areas for future strategic and practical interventions. The research approach had to acknowledge this reality and combine a variety of techniques, from a detailed legal assessment, to opinion polling and stakeholder analysis (which included lawyers, technical experts, and political party officers), to consultation with legal experts. We believe this study will provide invaluable insights for all stakeholders and contribute to better understanding of electoral justice in Serbia, but we are even more certain that its findings and recommendations will prompt serious discussion and interventions in priority areas. The measure of success of this study will be its impact on future advocacy and key strategic and practical interventions. This paper has been produced was part of the project ‘Protecting the Vote through Effective and Transparent Election Dispute Resolution in Serbia’ implemented by CeSID with the support and partnership of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Belgrade, 11 May 2021 Emilija ORESTIJEVIĆ Bojan KLAČAR Serbia’s first multi-party election was held on 9 December 1990, after 25 years without political pluralism of any kind. Even though a multi-party system has now existed for close on 30 years, from 1990 to the parliamentary election of 23 December 2000 polls were fraught with serious irregularities and did not deserve to be considered either free or fair. Nevertheless, the democratic changes inaugurated with the defeat of Slobodan Milošević in the autumn of 2000 did not do much to change the climate of mistrust in political institutions (particularly political parties), which had a knock-on effect on elections as well. A detailed discussion of Serbian elections since 1997 can be found in CESID’s Oko Izbora series of papers (available at cesid.rs/izdanja/oko-izbora), whilst more research into trust in political institutions is presented in Ivona Živković i Ivo Čolović, „Istorijat poverenja u političke institucije u Srbiji od 1990. do 2020. godine“, in Kako, koga i zašto smo birali, Izbori u Srbiji 1990-2020. godine (2020), prir. Milan Jovanović i Dušan Vučićević, Institut za političke studije i Službeni glasnik, Beograd (Zbornik radova sa naučne konferencije). 1 3