On the heels of a weekend of large-scale demonstrations sparked by voter fraud accusations, Serbia’s Central Election Commission (RIK) published the final and official results of the December 2023 parliamentary elections on Wednesday, January 3rd, after a re-vote took place across eight precincts.
The RIK’s final results confirmed that President Aleksandr Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), along with its junior coalition partner the Socialist Party, have held onto the comfortable absolute majority they enjoyed in the National Assembly before the snap election, collectively garnering 53.3% of the vote.
The main opposition bloc, Serbia Against Violence (SPN), which had been polling at around 40% nationally before ballots were cast, massively underperformed according to the official results, winning just 23.66% of the vote and 65 parliamentary seats.
Immediately after the early official vote tally, the opposition bloc asserted that the election had been “rigged,” alleging that Vučić had bussed in 40,000 Serbs from Bosnia to cast ballots in Belgrade. The SPN has called for the European Union to conduct an independent investigation into voting irregularities.
Vučić has ruled out the possibility of an outside investigation, insisting that elections are “a matter for [Serbian] state institutions.”
The National Gathering bloc, made up of Dveri and Serbian Party Oathkeepers, which ran on a platform that most vocally opposed both sanctions against Russia and recognizing Kosovo, also performed well below expectations. After polling at around 5% before the election, the national-conservative coalition managed to collect just 2.76%, just below the 3% threshold, and consequently lost the 20 seats that they held in the last parliament.
Meanwhile, the remaining two right-wing opposition lists managed to pass the threshold. The first, “Mi–Glas iz Naroda” (We–The Voice of the People), led by prominent pulmonologist and COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Branimir Nestorović, won 4.69% of the vote and 13 parliamentary seats. The monarchist-conservative Hope for Serbia coalition—composed of the National Democratic Alternative, the New Democratic Party of Serbia, and the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia—earned 5% of the vote and 14 seats.
Election irregularities like “vote buying” and “ballot stuffing” were also noted by international observers. Serbian authorities, for their part, have vehemently denied the existence of any irregularities.
The RIK has yet to announce the official results for the City Assembly in Belgrade. However, projections by polling firms IPSOS and CESID suggest Vučić’s SNS won with 38% of the vote while SPN came in a close second with 35%. Nestorović’s We–The Voice of the People could potentially play kingmaker given that neither SNS nor SPN have a clear majority without their backing. If the right-wing coalition opts to remain in the City Assembly’s opposition, it could mean the elections in the capital may have to be repeated.
Opposition parties have vowed to organize further demonstrations after Orthodox Christmas on January 7th.
