At the height of the electoral campaign in Serbia, a vote-buying scandal broke out. An investigative group of journalists discovered a call center on the outskirts of Belgrade, where voters were recruited through phone calls in exchange for voting for the December 17 elections.

In the call center where about 300 young people work, citizens were promised jobs or recruited for campaigns in exchange for votes.

According to Serbian media, the company was owned by a businessman close to the Progressive Party of Aleksandar Vucic. A journalist managed to penetrate inside the call center and follow the entire procedure of how citizens were recruited.

The Serbian president denies that the call center was used to buy votes. In a short reaction he stated that every party needs teams of young people who make calls for the campaign. Officials of Vucic’s party said that the payments that were promised to the journalist infiltrated in the call center were for the work they would do as activists and not for the votes.

Meanwhile, the Serbian media have released documents that show that the call center used detailed lists of voters, as well as notes for payments or promises of jobs.