Elections in Serbia: contesting the results at the heart of the demonstrations

New ballots will be organized in around thirty offices in Serbia in the face of the dispute over Sunday’s legislative elections, which saw the victory of the nationalist party in power, against a backdrop of accusations of fraud brushed aside by the president.

Serbia’s Election Commission decided on Wednesday that voters will return to the polls in only 30 of 8,000 polling stations on December 30, according to a statement published by state broadcaster RTS. This new election mainly concerns rural areas.

This announcement comes after two days of demonstrations which saw several thousand people gather in front of the electoral commission in Belgrade to contest the results of the elections, from which the presidential party (SNS, nationalist right) emerged victorious. with 46.7% of the votes.

The opposition, united under the banner “Serbia against violence” and totaling 23.5% of the votes, has been denouncing fraud since Sunday.

Allegations partly confirmed by a preliminary report from the international observation mission, led by the OSCE, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

The vote was generally “ran smoothly, but was marked by isolated instances of violence, procedural irregularities and frequent allegations of organizedand transportation of voters to support the ruling party during local elections”they say.

“Other cases of serious irregularities, including vote buying and ballot stuffing” were observed.

Suspicion of fraud in Belgrade

According to the opposition coalition, “more than 40,000 people” voted in the capital – where local elections were also held – without being residents, transported by bus from Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in neighboring Bosnia.

However, although Bosnian Serbs who have dual nationality have the right to participate in national elections, they cannot vote in local elections.

Several videos posted on social networks on Sunday claimed to show the arrival of voters in one of the city’s stadiums, where they were told in which neighborhoods they should vote.

President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed the accusations on Wednesday, saying that the vote had been “peaceful and civil”.

In a video posted on Instagram, Mr. Vucic says: “They know very well that only a small number of people voted, in accordance with the law of this country (…) as confirmed by the monitors at the polling stations. Peacefully, civilly and as befits responsible people”.

“I also want to tell you not to worry,” the president concludes his message,“on behalf of the citizens of Serbia, on behalf of our entire nation, I want to tell you, and say it to all Serbs: we will defend the electoral will of the people and there is no doubt about it”.

Aleksandar Vucic, without being a candidate, was on all the campaign posters for the SNS.

Born in the wake of the massive demonstrations which shook the country in May, after the death of 19 people in two shootings – including one in a primary school -, the “Serbia against violence” coalition has constantly denounced a biased campaign.

The campaign was marred by “violent rhetoric, biased media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources”all on the background “decisive involvement of the president”, Aleksandar Vucic, offering his party “an undue advantage”, observers noted.

On Wednesday, in front of again a few hundred people who came to demonstrate, Miroslav Aleksic, one of the opposition candidates, affirmed that the coalition’s lawyers were going to request the cancellation of the elections “at all levels, therefore throughout Serbia”, denouncing a vote that was “illegitimate and stolen”.