President Aleksandar Vucic claims his party’s victory in the legislative elections, the opposition denounces fraud

The head of state claimed victory even before the official results were announced. An opposition coalition calls for the cancellation of the vote in Belgrade.

A few hours after the closing of the polling stations, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, claimed, on Sunday December 17, the victory of his party, the SNS (nationalist right), in the legislative elections. The presidential party would emerge strengthened, with at least 127 seats out of the 250 in the Serbian Parliament. “We will have an absolute majority in Parliament” he declared confidently at a press conference, based on 76% of the ballots counted on Sunday evening.

However, the official results are not expected before Monday evening, recalled the opposition united under the banner “Serbia against violence” (SPN), which would win 23.5% of the votes, according to estimates.

The opposition united after demonstrations

On Monday, this coalition called “Citizens of Belgrade to demonstrate against electoral theft”, and demanded the cancellation of the vote in the capital, where Aleksandar Vucic’s camp won by 23,000 votes. According to the opposition, “more than 40,000 people” voted in the capital without residing there, transported by bus from Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity in neighboring Bosnia.

The opposition coalition, born from the demonstrations which shook the country in May after the death of 19 people in two shootings, has continued to denounce a biased campaign, tainted according to it by fraud. Ahead of the vote, a journalist also claimed – with video support – to have uncovered a system of buying votes in favor of the SNS. Accusations that Prime Minister Ana Brnabic brushed aside during a press conference in the evening.