A few hundred people began their announced blockade of Belgrade’s arteries by blocking a street in order to protest against fraud which they believe occurred during the parliamentary and local elections in Serbia.
The demonstrators blocked the small street in the center of the capital where the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Autonomy is located, which had previously rejected their demands.
The demonstrators, mainly students from the “Borba” (Combat) organization, joined the opposition movement launched on December 18, the day after the elections. They demand the revision of the electoral list which, according to them, is at the origin of electoral fraud.
“I was born in 2002 and I didn’t think that I would have to fight for democracy in the streets like my parents did,” said student of the Faculty of Political Science, Emilija Milenkovic.
“But I have to do it,” added the 21-year-old wearing a badge from the Otpor (Resistance) student movement, who participated in the protest against the power of Slobodan Milosevic in the early 2000s.
The party of nationalist President Aleksandar Vucic claimed victory in the legislative elections on December 17. But the vote attracted widespread criticism after a team of international observers – including representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – denounced a series of “irregularities”, including “the ‘vote buying’ and ‘ballot stuffing’.
Hundreds of people have since demonstrated daily in front of the Serbian Election Commission and international condemnations have poured in. Members of the main opposition list, Serbia Without Violence, began a hunger strike in a bid to overturn the results.
On Sunday, demonstrators contesting these results attacked Belgrade town hall, breaking windows with stones, before being pushed back by the police.
President Vucic claimed two police officers were “seriously injured” during the protest, while more than 35 people were arrested.
MP Radomir Lazovic, a member of the main opposition coalition, who was beaten by police during Sunday’s incidents, said there was “always a possibility of stopping everything if they confess to the fraud and cancel the elections”.
