Kosovo
Kosovo Serbs head to polling stations in Serbia: up to 3-hour waits at Jarinje, EULEX steps up presence
Voters from Kosovo cast ballots at 60 polling stations in Raška, Tutin, Vranje and Kuršumlija; two women fainted in the lines in Raška.
By ANN Newsroom · Newsroom
October 25, 2026, 19:45 · Updated 18:40 · 1 min read
In brief
- According to the National Center for Border Management, waits to exit reached up to 3 hours at Jarinje.
- At Merdare, the line of vehicles stretched up to 3,000 meters.
- EULEX, in coordination with the Kosovo Police and KFOR, increased its presence near the crossings.
Thousands of Serbs from Kosovo crossed into Serbia on Sunday to vote in the snap parliamentary elections, after the Republic Electoral Commission decided that voters residing in Kosovo would vote at 60 polling stations in the municipalities of Raška, Tutin, Vranje and Kuršumlija.
Kilometer-long lines at the border
According to the National Center for Border Management, cited by Top Channel in the morning, the wait to leave Kosovo was 90 to 120 minutes at several crossing points, and 30 to 40 minutes to enter. At Merdare the wait reached an hour and a half to two hours, with a 3,000-meter line, while at Jarinje it was up to three hours.
According to the Serbian magazine Vreme, the first buses left North Mitrovica for Raška at around 5 a.m., while others headed for Ribariće in Tutin, Kuršumlija and Vranje. During the day, another group of voters who work in Serbian institutions in Kosovo set off from Zvečan and Mitrovica.
Fainting in the lines
According to the KoSSev portal, cited by Vreme, two women fainted at a polling station in Raška within the first half hour after opening, while a woman from Mitrovica was injured in the crowd. Her son said she voted despite serious health problems, out of fear of consequences at work.
The EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX, said that from the morning, in coordination with the Kosovo Police and KFOR, it had increased its presence near the administrative crossing points with central Serbia to monitor the situation during the elections.
