In Serbia, a triumph was announced for President Aleksandar Vucic, whose conservative and national-populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), as had long been expected and according to initial, still very partial results, appears to have largely established itself in today's early parliamentary elections, far behind the main opposition cartel, a movement called “Serbia Against Violence” that emerged after the massacres last May and was the protagonist of anti-government protests and demonstrations that lasted for months in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia.
According to information provided by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic in the evening, the SNS, of which she herself is a member, would have received 47.1% of the vote, a result well above the almost 43% that the party achieved in the last parliamentary elections of April 3, 2022.
Speaking at SNS headquarters, the Prime Minister based this figure on a forecast that 50% of ballots would be processed by the party. A result that would give the SNS an absolute majority in parliament with over 125 out of a total of 250 seats. 23% would go to the main opposition cartel Barnabic and 6.5% to Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic's Serbian Socialist Party (SPS).
At the same time, Barnabic rejected the opposition's allegations of fraud and irregularities and spoke of “lies and brutal untruths” that were spread with the aim of deliberately fomenting tension and chaos. These triumphant data for the SNS were essentially confirmed by the first forecasts of the Ipsos/CeSID Institute for Demographic Research, according to which the SNS would receive 46%, the opposition cartel 23%, the Socialists 6%, 9%. Voter turnout appears to be slightly higher than in the last parliamentary elections on April 3, 2002 (58.60%).
On the eve of the vote and also this morning at the polling station, Vucic said he expected a better result than in the last parliamentary elections last year (almost 43% and 120 seats), possibly an absolute majority for the SNS, which leads all governments over the last decade, with Vucic as both prime minister and president. Last May, Vucic left the party leadership and was handed over to Milos Vucevic, his most loyal former mayor of Novi Sad and currently deputy prime minister and defense minister. But Vucic himself was the undisputed protagonist of the entire and hectic election campaign, which he transformed and expertly simplified with a referendum question that he made clear in every rally and every interview: either we vote for the continuity of the country's economic growth policy, development and modernization, which is being carried out by the current leadership, or we will return to the past by trusting the opposition forces, which, in his opinion, would lead the country to ruin and destroy everything that has been built and done well in recent years.
There was massive voter turnout among Kosovo Serbs, who were able to vote in four locations in southern Serbia, not far from the border, due to the Pristina leadership's refusal to set up polling stations at their places of residence.
In addition to the national parliamentary elections, there were also votes in Serbia for the renewal of the local parliament in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, the richest and most developed part in the north of the country, as well as for the administrative elections in 65 municipalities, including the capital Belgrade. The Belgrade result could be better for the opposition than the national one.
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