Repeat voting for public prosecutors who will be the elected members of the new convocation High Prosecution Council (HPC) held on Wednesday at four polling stations, should give an answer to an essential question: whether in the next five years the body responsible for the selection, promotion and dismissal of prosecutors will work independently, or under the control of the executive power.
Elections are held at two polling stations in Kragujevac, and at one polling station each in Niš and Novi Sad, and three prosecutors should be elected at these.
Certain media outlets report that prosecutors have been under various pressures for weeks to give in and vote for candidates who are favorites of the Aleksandar Vučić regime. Some of them, according to unnamed sources, allegedly contacted the Security and Information Agency and "convinced" them which candidates were the most suitable.
An attempt to overturn the will of the prosecutors
In the regular election process, the current that opposed the attempts to control the government won a convincing victory. She considered the repetition due to complaints unfounded, but it was confirmed by the Constitutional Court headed by Vladan Petrov.
The expert community has warned for a long time that in the elections for the members of the Supreme Court, the government will try to take full control over the prosecutor's office by establishing a close majority Nenad Stefanović, the chief public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, who is known as a loyal executor of the commands of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. It would, therefore, be about complete and undisguised regime control of the judiciary.
The controversies surrounding the elections in the VST culminated when the Constitutional Court challenged the results of the December 2025 elections in January and ordered their repetition in four polling stations. That decision was seen by a part of the professional public as an attempt to "end the electoral will" of the prosecutors.
Photo: Tanjug/Ana Paunkovićchief prosecutor of the VJT, Nenad Stefanović
This was followed by the irrevocable resignation of five members of the VST Election Commission at the end of January. They refused to hold a repeat election because they believe that the original vote was in accordance with the law.
Controversies and tensions
Political pressures were taken for granted, as in the case of much more benign things in Serbia, so the President of the Court of Justice, Branko Stamenković, publicly indicated that the executive and legislative authorities are putting pressure on the prosecutor's office without hesitation.
Due to these pressures, Stamenković pointed out at the beginning of February that Justice Minister Nenad Vujić cannot issue warrants and orders to prosecutors.
"The Minister of Justice is an equal member of the Supreme Court, just like the others. He has the right to express expectations, but those expectations cannot include orders and orders to the Supreme Court. He is not superior to that body, nor to the prosecutors in this country," Stamenković told Vojvodina Radio and Television (RTV).
The reasons for so many controversies and tensions are multiple. First of all, constitutional amendments significantly expanded the powers of the Supreme Court of Justice, so until the constitutional changes, the Supreme Court of Justice proposed candidates for prosecutors, but they were elected by the Serbian Parliament. Since the changes to the Constitution, the Supreme Court of Justice chooses prosecutors by itself, decides on their career advancement or dismissal.
In addition, the elections for the Supreme Judicial Court were accompanied by an open conflict between representatives of the executive power and the top prosecutor's office embodied in Zagorka Dolovac.
