SERBIA’S RULING PARTY DECLARES VICTORY IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS AMID VOTE-RIGGING ACCUSATIONS

Mon 18 December 2023:

Serbia’s ruling populist party comfortably won Sunday’s parliamentary elections, according to an early official vote count, but political tensions rose over allegations of irregularities in a local election race in the capital, Belgrade.

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has won 47% of the vote with half of the votes counted, said Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

The coalition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) got 23%, while the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the SNS’s ruling partner, received 6.7%, she said.

Brnabic added that the SNS won more than 125 seats in the 250-seat Serbian Parliament.

A total of 126 seats are needed for a majority in the assembly.

The SNS has been in power since 2012.

According to the Republic Election Commission, turnout was over 51.93% two hours before polling stations closed.

Serbia held snap general and local elections on Sunday for the country’s 250-seat parliament, 120-member Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and municipal councils.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0600GMT) and closed at 8 p.m. (1900GMT) for around 6.5 million eligible voters.

Voting took place at 8,273 election centers in Serbia and 81 election centers in 35 other countries.

Rigging accusations

An opposition group said it was robbed of victory in the Belgrade local election, would not recognise the results and would demand a rerun of the ballot.

Irregularities also were reported by election monitors and independent media. One claimed ethnic Serbs from neighbouring Bosnia were bussed in en masse to vote in Belgrade. Serbia Against Violence charged that 40,000 identity documents were issued for people who do not live in the capital city.

Another report claimed a monitoring team was assaulted and their car attacked with baseball bats in a town in northern Serbia. Allegations have also emerged of voters being paid or put under pressure to vote for the ruling party.

Vučic and his party have denied the allegations.

The opposition said it would lodge official complaints and called a street protest later on Monday.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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