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DPA
Belgrade
Serbian electoral authorities on Monday were still counting the ballots after the parliamentary election a day earlier, but it was clear that President Aleksandar Vucic will be able to govern at will through his Progressive Party (SNS).
With 70 per cent of the ballots accounted for, early projections were confirmed with a provisional result that saw the SNS with 191 of the 250 seats, or a nearly four-fifths majority.
Of the remaining 21 tickets only Vucic’s coalition partners, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic’s Socialists (SPS) and the new opposition SPAS (Rescue) party, cleared the 3-per-cent hurdle to enter parliament, with 32 and 11 seats respectively.
The remaining seats were claimed by ethnic-minority representatives - Hungarians have 10, Bosniaks four and Albanians two.
The election was marked by a boycott by most opposition parties, which accuse Vucic of abuse of power and of manipulating the entire electoral framework to SNS’s benefit.
One of the boycotting leaders, Dragan Djilas, accused Vucic’s authorities of manipulating even the turnout figure, by threatening and pressuring voters and outright falsification, in order to reduce the impact of the initiative.
According to the state electoral commission the turnout was just over 50 per cent, but Djilas and other opposition figures insisted that it was closer to 40 per cent.
The boycotting parties sought to draw international attention to what they say is Vucic’s abuse of authority, from overstepping the legal bounds of his office to media control and misappropriation of funds.
Belgrade
Serbian electoral authorities on Monday were still counting the ballots after the parliamentary election a day earlier, but it was clear that President Aleksandar Vucic will be able to govern at will through his Progressive Party (SNS).
With 70 per cent of the ballots accounted for, early projections were confirmed with a provisional result that saw the SNS with 191 of the 250 seats, or a nearly four-fifths majority.
Of the remaining 21 tickets only Vucic’s coalition partners, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic’s Socialists (SPS) and the new opposition SPAS (Rescue) party, cleared the 3-per-cent hurdle to enter parliament, with 32 and 11 seats respectively.
The remaining seats were claimed by ethnic-minority representatives - Hungarians have 10, Bosniaks four and Albanians two.
The election was marked by a boycott by most opposition parties, which accuse Vucic of abuse of power and of manipulating the entire electoral framework to SNS’s benefit.
One of the boycotting leaders, Dragan Djilas, accused Vucic’s authorities of manipulating even the turnout figure, by threatening and pressuring voters and outright falsification, in order to reduce the impact of the initiative.
According to the state electoral commission the turnout was just over 50 per cent, but Djilas and other opposition figures insisted that it was closer to 40 per cent.
The boycotting parties sought to draw international attention to what they say is Vucic’s abuse of authority, from overstepping the legal bounds of his office to media control and misappropriation of funds.
