It was the first planned all-day blockade since the Dec. 17 parliamentary and municipal elections in which President Aleksandar Vučić’s party claimed a landslide victory. The opposition contested the voting results.
The main opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, claims ethnic Serbs from neighboring Bosnia were allowed to vote illegally in the capital.
International observers also reported irregularities, and several Western countries expressed concern regarding the voting process.
The students, gathered in the “Kova” movement, are calling for the annulment of the election results and a re-organization of the voting.
“In our country, there has literally been no justice related to democratic processes for decades,” Jovana Kostadinova, a 19-year-old student at the Faculty of Electronics Engineering and Biology at the University of Belgrade, told AFP.
“Now that I finally have the right to vote, (my voice) has not been taken into account and I feel hurt,” she said.
“Who stole the election?” activist Ivan Bijelić asked the protesting students, and they responded by chanting: “Thieves, thieves!”
The students, joined by other youths, pitched tents and laid out sleeping bags in a makeshift camp while other protesters sat at an intersection close to government buildings.
“We will not allow this to you (Vučiću),” reads a poster held by one of the protesters.
“Serbian Euromaidan,” proclaimed another, referring to the wave of pro-European protests in Ukraine in 2014.
On Friday night, the students were joined by several hundred protesters who had earlier gathered in front of the state election commission.
After the blockade ends at noon on Saturday, the protesters plan to join another demonstration organized by a group of intellectuals, artists and celebrities who have called for people to participate in the elections.
A. Vučić’s right-wing Serbian Progress Party (SNS) won regarding 46 percent in the parliamentary elections. votes, and the main opposition coalition – 23.5 percent, official results show.
Protesters have set up several roadblocks in Belgrade since the election.
The fiercest protests took place on Sunday evening, when demonstrators tried to occupy Belgrade’s town hall following police dispersed them with pepper spray.
The protesters, more than 30 of whom were detained, smashed the windows of the capital’s administrative building with flagpoles, stones and eggs and tried to get inside.
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2024-07-16 14:03:36
