What is(not) visible from the preliminary campaign expenditure reports
Although all candidate lists for municipal assemblies in the ten municipalities were required to submit preliminary campaign expenditure reports by March 20, only slightly more than half (26 out of 49), according to the data published by the Anti-Corruption Agency, have fulfilled this obligation. Transparency Serbia advocates for a change in the concept under the Law on Financing Political Activities, so that instead of submitting preliminary reports showing the status 15 days before the elections, accounts are monitored throughout the entire campaign, as is the practice, for example, in the Czech Republic.
From the published reports, it is visible that the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) transferred a total of 35.2 million dinars from its regular account to campaign accounts in individual municipalities and, by March 13, 2026, paid 11.8 million dinars in advance for advertising on RTS. To a significantly lesser extent, campaigns are financed from regular accounts by SDPS (1 million dinars) and several opposition lists (449,000 dinars). Citizen groups from Lučani, Knjaževac, Kladovo, and Bor reported revenues from contributions by individuals (totaling between 100,000 and 1 million dinars), and in one case, Zdrava Srbija did the same.
Based on this, it could be concluded that the majority of campaign expenses will be covered by the budget. Municipalities are supposed to allocate a total of 10,750,070 dinars to participants for this purpose, but it is already clear that a significantly larger portion of revenues comes from the national budget, which parliamentary parties receive to finance their regular activities.
We remind that the budgets of Serbia and its municipalities are also burdened by many other costs that are not visible in these reports, including pre-election roadworks, engagement of public enterprises, as well as highly intensive campaigns by public officials, who during this period organized hundreds of visits to preelection municipalities, allegedly performing their regular duties. Despite numerous publicly stated claims, public prosecutors have so far not commented on allegations that employees in municipal administrations, public enterprises, and institutions from other cities were engaged during the pre-election period to participate in the campaign.
Six reports contain no data on expenses at all (not even for signature verification), while the others mostly show minor costs for the procurement of promotional materials.
The ruling SNS has reported costs for public gatherings in the reports for Aranđelovac and Kula, but these relate solely to the technical preparation of the events. Costs of public gatherings were also reported by local citizen groups from Knjaževac and Lučani.
The main part of the election campaign expenses, including advertising by the ruling coalition covering all ten municipalities on national TV channels, as well as the pre-election rally at the Belgrade Arena on March 21, 2026, occurred during a period not covered by the preliminary reports (from March 14, 2026). Whether and to what extent these expenses will be reported will only become known one month after the election results are officially announced.