BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An early official vote count in Serbia's weekend elections on Monday confirmed the ruling populist party's victory in a parliamentary vote in the Balkan country, but political tensions rose over reported irregularities in the capital Belgrade.
An opposition group said it was deprived of victory in Belgrade's local elections, would not recognize the results and called for a repeat vote.
Sunday's parliamentary and local elections in the Balkan country pitted populist President Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party against the opposition alliance “Serbia Against Violence.”
According to a near-complete preliminary tally from the State Election Commission, Vucic's SNS party won around 47% of the vote in the parliamentary vote, followed by Serbia Against Violence with 23%.
Several other smaller parties also took part in the election, which took place just 18 months after the previous presidential and parliamentary elections.
If the final vote count is confirmed, the result would mean that the SNS party has an absolute majority in the 250-member parliament and will alone form the next government.
Official results for Belgrade City Hall have yet to be announced, but forecasts by pollsters IPSOS and CESID show SNS won 38% of the vote in Belgrade, while Serbia Against Violence won 35%. However, Serbia Against Violence claimed fraud and pointed to numerous reports of irregularities both during the campaign and on election day.
Irregularities were also reported by election observers and independent media. One claimed that ethnic Serbs from neighboring Bosnia were bussed en masse to Belgrade to vote. Serbia Against Violence alleged that 40,000 identity documents were issued to people who do not live in the capital.
Another report said a surveillance team was attacked and their car attacked with baseball bats in a town in northern Serbia. There were also allegations that voters were being paid or pressured to vote for the ruling party.
“The problems that marked election day on December 17 were particularly serious in Belgrade and were caused primarily by the intention to influence citizens' will to vote,” said the independent group Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, which monitors elections in Serbia monitored.
Vucic and his party have rejected the allegations.
The opposition said it would lodge official complaints and called for a street protest later on Monday.
“An overproduction of voters who do not live in Serbia, let alone in Belgrade, is a blatant abuse of the law,” opposition politician Marinika Tepic said early Monday. “We will use all legal means at our disposal to democratically defend the people’s will to vote.”
The election was not presidential, but government authorities, supported by the dominant pro-government media, conducted the campaign as a referendum on Vucic.
Serbia Against Violence, a pro-European bloc, includes parties that were behind months of street protests this year sparked by two consecutive mass shootings in May.
Serbia, a Balkan country that enjoys good relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, has been a candidate for European Union membership since 2014 but has faced accusations of steadily eroding democratic freedoms in recent years.
.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.