Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić has declared his party has won a commanding victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, consolidating the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)’s rule in the Balkan country.
Official results are set to be announced late Monday but just hours after the polls closed, the president was confident in his party’s performance.”We will have an absolute majority in parliament with 127 seats,” Vučić told reporters during a press conference, saying around 76 percent of ballots had been counted.
Even though Vučić was not personally on the ballot in Sunday’s parliamentary and local elections, the contest was largely seen as a referendum on his government, which appears to have won the approval of most Serbs.
The populist SNS looked poised to expand its presence in the 250-seat parliament following Sunday’s results. During the previous election in 2022, the party secured just 120 seats, resulting in a coalition government.
The SNS still faced potentially hard-fought municipal races in the capital Belgrade, particularly from the loose coalition of opposition parties and candidates running under the Serbia Against Violence banner.
That movement was formed in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings earlier this year. They spurred massive anti-government protests, which eventually gave birth to the eight-party opposition bloc, convinced of its victory by seeing its popular support on the streets.
Outside Belgrade and a few other population centers, however, the united opposition’s coalition appears to have failed to garner support and may have even compelled even more previously undecided voters to back the ruling SNS, simply to avoid a leftist takeover.
Naturally, the opposition has declared foul play. On Sunday, opposition leader Radomir Lazović complained of numerous “irregularities”, citing alleged “vote buying” and “falsification of signatures”, echoed by international media commentary on “corruption.”
Rumors on social media alleged that the government allowed unregistered voters from neighboring Bosnia to cast ballots illegally in the election, but no evidence was produced to back up these allegations.
Prime Minister Ana Brnabić dismissed the claims, accusing the reports of spreading chaos.
Vučić appeared confident as voting began on Sunday, predicting a landslide victory even then. The opposition pinned its hopes on a high turnout.
By the time polls opened at 7:00 a.m., lines had already formed in Belgrade as people waited to cast their ballots.
“I came early to support our president, he must continue his work,” said Stojan Milenkovic, a 67-year-old retiree. Others were hoping the contest would bring change to the country’s political scene.
Along the southern border, hundreds of ethnic Serbs from the former breakaway province of Kosovo crossed into Serbia to cast their votes.
The voters loaded onto over a dozen buses and spent nearly two hours crossing the border, following the failure of Belgrade and the Pristina government to iron out a deal that would have allowed the Serbs to vote inside Kosovo.
