Belgrade, Serbia
Reuters
The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic is in the lead in a snap election on Sunday with 46.6 per cent of votes, according to a projection by pollsters Ipsos and CeSID.
The opposition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) alliance is set to come second with 23 per cent, while the Socialist Party of Serbia of outgoing foreign minister Ivica Dacic is trailing on 6.9 per cent.
People stand next to a pre-election billboard of the opposition coalition ‘Serbia Against Violence’ in Belgrade, Serbia, on 14th December, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Zorana Jevtic/File photo
The pollsters, whose vote projections are based on a partial count of a representative sample of polling stations, said that by 7pm turnout was 55.9 per cent.
A total of 18 parties and alliances are vying for the support of the 6.5 million-strong electorate for 250 seats in the parliament. The threshold for entering the parliament is three per cent of votes. Polls will close at 8pm.
Two mass shootings in May, resulting in 18 deaths, including nine elementary school students, triggered protests that shook Vucic and the SNS’s decade-long grip on power. The dissent was exacerbated by rising inflation, standing at eight per cent in November.
Opposition parties and rights watchdogs also accuse Vucic and the SNS of voter bribery, stifling media freedoms, violence against opponents, corruption, and ties with organised crime. Vucic and his allies deny these allegations.
The CeSID and IPSOS pollsters, which are jointly monitoring Sunday’s vote, reported irregularities including organised arrivals of voters to polling stations, photographing of ballots, and procedural errors.
The state Election Commission said election monitors of the CRTA watchdog were attacked in Serbia’s north. One person was later arrested in connection with the incident, police said in a statement.
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The parliamentary election, the fifth since 2012, coincides with local votes taking place in most municipalities, the capital Belgrade and the northern province of Vojvodina.
Serbia, a candidate to join the European Union, must first normalise relations with Kosovo, its former predominantly Albanian province that declared independence in 2008 after a late 1990s guerrilla uprising. EU-brokered talks between Belgrade and Pristina are stalled, and tensions remain high.
Serbia must also root out corruption and organised crime, liberalise the economy, and align its foreign policies with those of the EU, including introduction of sanctions against its traditional ally Russia – due to its invasion of Ukraine.
