2023-12-18 21:22:27
– President Vucic’s party wins the legislative elections
The presidential party SNS (radical right) was declared the winner of Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Serbia by the Serbian electoral commission.
Published today at 10:22 p.m.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during a press conference in Belgrade, December 17, 2023.
AFP
The presidential party won the legislative elections in Serbia, the electoral commission announced Monday evening, once morest a backdrop of irregularities noted by international observers and described as “unacceptable” by Germany. A few hours earlier, a harsh report from international observers had denounced a vote marked by “vote buying” and “ballot box stuffing”.
“Serbia voted but the OSCE reported cases of fraudulent use of public funds, intimidation of voters and vote buying,” denounced the German Foreign Ministry. “This is unacceptable for a country which has candidate status for the EU,” he argued. The “preliminary results” of the electoral commission give the SNS (nationalist right) in the majority with 46.7% of the votes.
The opposition united under the banner “Serbia once morest violence” won 23.5% of the votes, according to these results which will only be final in a few days, once the appeal period has expired. In Belgrade, the local commission gives the SNS the winner with 44.5%, followed by the SPN with 38.18%. But these results are contested: the opposition denounces fraud in the capital, and several thousand demonstrators gathered Monday evening in front of the electoral commission (RIK) to demand a cancellation of the municipal vote.
“Disgusted”
Only a few hundred people remained in the evening, notably students. “It was a theft. I’m disgusted, it’s something that’s repetitive. I’m just disgusted. I want that to change,” explains Ana Mirkovic, 37, who came to protest in front of the RIK building. Sunday’s legislative elections were coupled in some places with local ballots.
This was particularly the case in Belgrade, where 1.5 million people live, almost a quarter of the country. The SNS claimed the majority – with 38.5% of the votes, or 23,000 more than the opposition. But according to the opposition coalition “Serbia once morest violence” (SPN), “more than 40,000 people” voted in the capital without being residents, transported by bus from Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity in neighboring Bosnia .
Several videos posted on social networks on Sunday claimed to show the arrival of voters in one of the city’s stadiums, where they were told in which neighborhoods they should go to vote. “The elections were stolen by the massive transport of voters to Belgrade,” denounced Aleksa Madzarevic, a 20-year-old student, in the demonstration. “These are simply not the people who live in Belgrade and the power in this way changes our electoral will, the electoral will of the Belgraders.”
“Ballot stuffing”
The allegations of fraud were confirmed by a preliminary report from the international observation mission (OSCE, European Parliament and Council of Europe). Observers described a vote “marked by isolated cases of violence, procedural irregularities and frequent allegations of organizing and transporting voters to support the ruling party in local elections”, as well as “purchases of votes and ballot stuffing.
“The opinion of the OSCE is the same as that of the crowd gathered here,” Dragan Djilas, one of the leaders of the “Serbia Against Violence” opposition coalition, told the demonstrators. “We demand that the elections be canceled, that the electoral registers be cleaned (of false voters, editor’s note), and we hope that we will achieve this by peaceful means.” Two other coalition leaders, Marinika Tepic and Miroslav Aleksic, will begin a hunger strike, he added.
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