Voting commenced on Sunday in Serbia’s snap election, marking an essential bid for President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to secure another term following a decline in popularity after two mass shootings earlier this year.
A total of 18 parties and alliances are contending for support from the 6.5 million-strong electorate, vying for 250 parliamentary seats. The entry threshold to the parliament stands at 3% of votes. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m.
While legal constraints prohibit exit polls, initial unofficial results from pollsters, based on monitoring counting in a national sample of polling stations, are anticipated after 9 p.m. (2000 GMT). The complete results from the state election commission are anticipated to be announced in the coming days.
Two mass shootings earlier in May, resulting in 18 fatalities, including nine elementary school students, sparked protests that shook Vucic and the SNS’s stronghold on power, worsened by mounting inflation at 8% in November.
Opposition parties and rights groups have accused Vucic and the SNS of various wrongdoings, including voter manipulation, curbing media freedom, violence against opponents, corruption, and alleged ties with organized crime. Vucic and his allies have refuted these claims.
Following casting his vote at a school in downtown Belgrade, Dragan Djilas, a leader of the centre-left opposition alliance Serbia Against Violence, stated, “Changes in Serbia have commenced. People are resolute about living a normal life without crime, corruption, and soaring prices.”
The parliamentary election, the fifth since 2012, coincides with local elections in most municipalities, Belgrade, and the northern province of Vojvodina.
A recent pre-election opinion poll by the Nova Srpska Politicka Misao website placed the SNS and its alliance Serbia Must Not Stop at the forefront with 39.8% of the vote, followed by the Serbia Against Violence alliance at 25.6%, and the Socialist Party (SPS) of outgoing Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, a long-time SNS coalition partner, at 8.9%.
Expressing confidence in victory after voting in Belgrade’s Novi Beograd municipality, President Vucic stated, “This is a crucial prerequisite for Serbia to continue its journey toward prosperity and success.”
Serbia, aiming to join the European Union, must first normalize relations with Kosovo, its former predominantly Albanian province that declared independence in 2008 following a late 1990s guerrilla uprising. Talks between Belgrade and Pristina, mediated by the EU, remain at a standstill, with tensions persisting.
Additionally, Serbia must combat corruption and organized crime, liberalize its economy, and align its foreign policies with the EU, which might involve imposing sanctions against its traditional ally Russia due to its Ukraine invasion.
