Serbia: thousands of demonstrators demand new elections

The large rally in central Belgrade capped nearly two weeks of protests against widespread irregularities reported in the December 17 parliamentary and local elections, which were also noted by international election observers.

The ruling Serbian Progressive Party was declared the winner of the elections, but the main opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, claimed the elections were stolen, particularly in Belgrade.

Serbia Against Violence has been leading daily protests since December 17 to demand the vote be annulled. Tension has risen following violent incidents and arrests of opposition supporters during a demonstration last weekend.

The crowd at Saturday’s rally cheered Marinika Tepic, an opposition figure who has been on a hunger strike since the vote. She is expected to be hospitalized after attending the rally.

“These elections must be restarted”she said, waving weakly to the crowd and saying she didn’t have the strength to give a longer speech.

Another opposition politician, Radomir Lazovic, urged the international community “not to remain silent” and pressured Vučić to hold new elections under free and fair conditions.

The opposition called for an international investigation into the vote after representatives of several international human rights watchdogs reported multiple irregularities, including cases of vote buying and ballot stuffing.

Vučić and his party rejected these reports, calling them “manufactured”. However, the authorities accepted a new vote in 35 of the country’s 8,300 polling stations this Saturday, which the opposition considers totally inappropriate, which is why it is boycotting the process.

Saturday’s rally was held symbolically in a central Belgrade neighborhood that in the early 1990s was the scene of protests against the anti-democratic policies of Slobodan Milosevic.

Critics today claim that Vučić, who was an ultranationalist ally of Milosevic in the 1990s, has reestablished autocracy in Serbia since coming to power in 2012, taking full control of the media and all state institutions. State.