In Belgrade, Serbians are going to participate in a snap election on Sunday, which is viewed as an attempt by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to secure another four-year term. This decision follows two mass shootings earlier this year that negatively impacted their popularity.
A total of 18 parties and alliances are competing for support from the 6.5 million-strong electorate for 250 seats in the parliament. The threshold for entering the parliament is 3% of votes. Polls will open at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT).
The two mass shootings in May, which resulted in 18 deaths, including nine elementary school students, led to street protests that shook Vucic and the SNS’s decade-long hold on power in the Western Balkan republic. In addition, rising inflation, reaching 8% in November, further exacerbated the dissent.
Opposition parties and rights watchdogs have accused Vucic and the SNS of voter bribery, stifling media freedoms, violence against opponents, corruption, and connections with organized crime. Vucic and his allies have denied these allegations.
The parliamentary election on Dec. 17, the fifth since 2012, coincides with local votes taking place in most municipalities, the capital Belgrade, and the northern province of Vojvodina.
A recent pre-election opinion poll by the Nova Srpska Politicka Misao website showed the SNS in the lead with 39.8% of the vote, followed by the centre-left Serbia Against Violence alliance at 25.6% and the Socialist Party (SPS) of outgoing Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, a long-time SNS coalition partner, with 8.9%.
“A strong electoral performance by SNS would reinforce policy continuity,” Teneo Intelligence said in a note on Thursday.
“It might give more political space to pursue unpopular compromises on issues like lithium mining or negotiations with Kosovo, especially with no national-level elections scheduled until 2027.”
Serbia, a candidate to join the European Union, must first normalize relations with Kosovo, its former predominantly Albanian province that declared independence in 2008 after a late 1990s guerrilla uprising. EU-brokered talks between Belgrade and Pristina are stalled, and tensions remain high.
Serbia must also combat corruption and organized crime, liberalize the economy, and align its foreign policies with those of the EU, including introduction of sanctions against Russia — a traditional ally of Belgrade — due to its invasion of Ukraine.
First unofficial results by pollsters, based on a vote count in a nationwide sample of polling stations, are expected after 9 PM (2000 GMT). Exit polls are prohibited by law. The state election commission is expected to announce full results in the days after.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
