Vucic announces victory in Serbia elections

According to preliminary results released by NGOs in Serbia, IPSOS / CeSid, Serbian Progressive Party candidate and current Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won 59.8 per cent of the vote in the April 3rd presidential election.

These data come after processing 55.6 percent of the vote, which gives Vucic another five-year term at the helm of Serbia.

The president can be elected in the first round if he receives more than 50 percent of the valid votes. In contrast, the two candidates with the most votes face off in the second round of the runoff.

According to the preliminary results published by IPSOS / CeSid, based on 62.5 percent of the processed votes, the list “Aleksandar Vucic – Together we can do everything” won the most votes in the parliamentary elections, respectively 43.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the opposition coalition “United for Victory” is expected to emerge the second parliamentary party with 12.9 percent of the vote.

The SNS coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia, according to preliminary results, won 11.6 per cent of the vote.

The NADA coalition is expected to win 5.4 percent of the vote, while the “We Must” coalition is expected to win 4.3 percent, Dveri 4 percent and Zavetnic 3.9 percent.

On Sunday (April 3rd), Serb citizens voted in the presidential and parliamentary elections, with election officials saying the turnout could be as high as 60 per cent.

This is a higher turnout in the 2020 parliamentary elections, when 48.8 percent of voters cast ballots.

There were 6.5 million eligible voters in the Serbian elections.

Representatives of the Election Commission in Serbia announced that they will not announce the preliminary election results on election night. This is the first time that this commission announces such a decision. The opposition has criticized the commission’s decision, calling it unprecedented.

The commission said it would announce the results on Monday 4 April by 20:00.

Irregularities in the elections

Election observers in Serbia have reported numerous irregularities in some polling stations.

The monitoring mission of the non-governmental organization CRTA has submitted to the police seven criminal reports for irregularities.

According to the representative of this organization, these irregularities included buying votes at polling stations, keeping parallel voter lists, violating the secrecy of the ballot, and the presence of unauthorized persons at polling stations.

The leader of one of the opposition Free Citizens Movement (PSG) parties, Pavle Grbovic, reported a physical attack near a polling station.

He claimed to have been attacked by members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) party, while saying he had suffered head injuries. The SNS denied these allegations.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement that Grbovic did not respond to the call to come to the police and give a statement in the case of the incident.

The chairman of the Election Commission said in the press conference that clashes of “various party activists” were registered in certain polling stations and that this was reported by the media.

He called on all political parties to “calm down the bloodshed” and “spend the rest of the election day in peace”.

Eight presidential candidates

Voters in Serbia on Sunday voted for the presidential election, with populist President Aleksandar Vucic – who boasts of his personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russia continues its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine – expected to win another five-year term at the helm. of the state.

Eight people have run for president.

Meanwhile, five years after winning his first term as president, Vucic continues to be the dominant force in Serbia, preaching peace and stability at a time when Europe is facing its biggest conflict since World War II.

But his critics say he has increased control of power through control of the media and the government, to the point that last month, he showed that 43 percent of respondents said they did not believe the April 3 election would be cheap or fair.

“In recent years, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party has consistently violated political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on the independent media, the opposition and civil society organizations,” Freedom House said in a statement. last for Serbia, ranking the country in 62nd place out of 100 countries in the index of freedom for 2021.

Vucic’s main challenger in this election is former army chief Zdravko Ponos – a retired general who came as a surprise candidate for the pro-European Union opposition camp.

“Ponosh, 60, is a” center-right candidate and it seems that the opposition wanted to find a person who could be a good candidate for what is considered on the right-wing political scene in Serbia, “he said. Bojan Klacar, managing director of the polling agency Center for Free Elections and Democracy.

A poll by the Belgrade-based Institute for European Affairs predicts that Vucic will win in the first round with 60 per cent of the vote, and Ponos will come in second with 18 per cent.

Race for the Serbian Parliament

Voters on April 3rd also voted in the parliamentary elections, in which the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is also expected to dominate. Local elections were held simultaneously for several municipalities, including the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Albanian parties also ran in the Serbian parliamentary elections, running on two lists: the Coalition of United Albanians and the Albanian Democratic Alternative – with a total of 20 candidates.

Serbs from Kosovo go to Serbia to vote

Meanwhile, Serbs in Kosovo, with dual citizenship voted in municipalities within Serbia, as the Government of Kosovo did not allow these elections to be held within the territory of the state. Kosovo said it had asked Serbia to send a request to the Government in Pristina for elections to be held, but Belgrade refused.

On Sunday morning, more than 25 buses were spotted at the bus station in North Mitrovica, transporting Serbs to vote in Raska.

Transport organized in North Mitrovica to send Serbs to Serbia to vote in the April 3rd elections.

Raska is one of the municipalities in Serbia, near the border with Kosovo, where about 100,000 Serb citizens living in Kosovo will be able to exercise their right to vote.

Organized transport was also provided in Gracanica, a Serb-majority municipality located near Pristina.

The transport of citizens to Serbia is done under the organization of Serbian municipalities, both those that operate in the Kosovo system, as well as those in the Serbian system.

The Quint states had expressed “great disappointment” with the decision of the Government of Kosovo to not allow the holding of Serbian elections./ REL

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