BELGRADE: Full election results on Wednesday handed Serbia’s ruling party a major victory in the parliamentary and local vote held on December 17, amid protests that triggered thousands to protest alleged fraud.
The Balkan country’s President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has won 46.75 per cent of ballots, while the main opposition camp united under the banner “Serbia Against Violence” (SPN) secured 23.66 per cent, data show on Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) website said.
RIK did not release comment on the published results, but rather just updated the data to show all polling stations had been reported.
Opposition groups have contested the results, and SPN demanded an international independent investigation from the European Union.
Among other alleged irregularities, they claimed that ethnic-Serb voters from neighbouring Bosnia had been allowed and bussed to cast ballots illegally in capital Belgrade.
International observers also reported irregularities — including “vote buying” and “ballot box stuffing” — while several Western nations voiced concern over the electoral process.
On January 2, Vucic rejected any outside probe, saying that elections are “a matter for (Serbian) state institutions”.
Over the last few days, Serbian citizens could vote again at some 30 polling stations — mainly in rural areas — where the election commission could not establish results clearly.
The vote was boycotted by the opposition, and SNS won an expected victory in those polling stations as high as nearly 85 per cent in one of them.
Since the elections, protesters have taken to the streets and erected sporadic roadblocks in Belgrade, demanding annulling the vote over suspicion of widespread fraud.
The rallies culminated on December 24, when demonstrators tried to storm Belgrade city hall and used rocks and flagpoles to break windows of the capital’s administrative building.
Thousands of students marched in central Belgrade in response to the violent dispersion of earlier protests that included tanks on the streets. — AFP
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