According to the projection, President Vucic faces re-election

According to projections, incumbent Aleksandar Vucic and his SNS party won the presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia, a candidate country for EU membership. According to polling institutes Ipsos and Cesid on Sunday night, Vucic received 59.8 of the votes and thus would prevail in the first round of voting without a second round.

According to projections, his SNS party can count on 43.6 percent of the votes, putting him well ahead of the opposition alliance “United for Victory” with 12.9 percent and the Socialists, who have 11, 6 percent.

The war in Ukraine overshadowed the electoral campaign in Serbia. Previously dominant issues such as environmental protection and corruption took a back seat. NGOs reported violent incidents on election day. The opposition accused SNS supporters of trying to intimidate citizens at polling stations. Parliamentary candidate Pavle Grbovic said he was attacked by ruling party activists as he tried to document voter fraud in Belgrade.

Many Serbs are sympathetic to the Kremlin; after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were even demonstrations in the country in support of the Russian army. Apparently out of fear of being punished by voters, the opposition largely refrained from attacking Vucic because of his largely neutral stance on the war in Ukraine.