Ruling Party Wins in Serbian Capital Due to Boycott, Six Months After Allegations of Fraud

Local elections were held in Serbia the day before. In addition to the election of councillors to the Belgrade City Assembly, elections were held in 14 other cities and 74 municipalities and city municipalities. The ruling party in Serbia won the elections in Belgrade. The announcement was made by President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday evening, six months after the first elections, which were marred by fraud, demonstrations, international protests and in the face of an opposition more divided than ever, Nova writes.

 ‘We had a majority even after 17 December in Belgrade,’ the Serbian president said during a live broadcast in the evening. 

‘But we didn't think it was legitimate enough, because others didn't want to form a coalition with us. Now we will have 62 or 63 seats,’ Vucic said,

The boycott did manage to reduce turnout in all major cities and municipalities. In Belgrade, where the boycott was strongest, turnout was 12 per cent lower. In many ways, this protest vote of the capital's citizens logically benefited the ruling party, which achieved a much better result (in percentage terms).   

According to observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the December elections in Serbia were affected by significant irregularities: fraud, vote buying and ballot box stuffing, which led to two weeks of international demonstrations and protests across the country.

‘What happened in December, happened in December,’ said Lamberto Zannier, head of the OSCE observer mission invited to monitor the vote. ‘Today we have 120 observers across the country, and we will be following the vote all day,’ he added.