Serbia will not be holding its elections scheduled for next month due to the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan-China and has now spread to more than 100 locations, globally, including in the United States. This pandemic has not only crippled economic activity, but we are also now seeing it cause countries to postpone their elections following the Iran fiasco.

The electoral commission of Serbia has announced that all preparations for the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 26 have been suspended. The vote will be delayed by at least a month due to a state of emergency declared by the government. The state of emergency could last for up to 90 days and can be extended to a maximum of 180 days depending on the scale of the situation. Serbia has also closed its borders to foreign nationals, except the Chinese.

Why This Matters for Democracies

The public activity has been said to be one of the most effective ways the Covid-19 virus spreads. Opening information and ensuring the safety of citizens is crucial to democracies around the world, as they help restore faith in government. We can learn hard lessons from Iran which held an election in the wake of the spread of the virus and now has the largest confirmed cases in the middle-east. This is also due to the lack of open information systems that could have helped citizens takes precautionary measures. We see the effect of this in the United Stets of America which in an unlikely turn of events now has a large number of cases, too.

How Bad is the Coronavirus in Serbia?

Serbia reported its first case of the Covid-19 virus on March 6, 2020, a man who reported himself to hospital in Subotica after getting the first symptoms. Predrag Kon, head of the Infectious Diseases Unit of the City Institute of Public Health in Belgrade speaking to Balkan Insights said: “It can be expected that other cases will arise elsewhere, especially in the capital.” Since then, up to 65 caseshave been confirmed, with 1 recovery.