Some four days after polling day, something close to a final result has at last been issued by Serbia’s Republic Electoral Commission. The conclusive official outcome will have to await re-runs of the vote at eight polling stations on Tuesday 11 April, after several complaints of irregularities were upheld.

As predicted, sitting Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic strolled to an easy first round victory garnering 55 per cent of the votes on a very moderate turnout of 54.5 per cent. His score was bang in line with most opinion polls carried out during the campaign.

There was a small degree of concentration of the opposition in the end, around the candidacy of former Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic, whose 16.3 per cent total exceeded several of his opinion poll scores. That pushed the spoof candidacy of Luka Maksimovic, a.k.a ‘Beli’ into third, although Beli’s eventual total of 9.4 per cent was not far out of line with polling projections.

Maksimovic’s final position was a crushing indictment of some of the country’s more established opposition forces and their inability to offer a viable alternative to Vucic.

The post-election period continued in the same less-than-model fashion that the campaign had been run, with numerous allegations of bad practices; disputes over the accuracy of the electoral register; a finding by international observers from the OSCE that the counting of votes in Kosovo was insecure; and demonstrations on the streets against the validity of the results.

Vucic is expected to be sworn in as President at the end of May, with a new Prime Minister being appointed in June.

 

SERBIAN PRESIDENCY 2 April
Provisional results after 98.79% of electorate processed

1. Aleksandar Vucic (Progressive Party, SNS) 55.07% or 1,994,210
2. Sasa Jankovic (‘For A Serbia without Fear’) 16.36% or 592,591
3. Luka Maksimovic (‘Ljubisa Beli Preletacevic’) 9.42% or 341,268
4. Vuk Jeremic (‘We Need to Do Better’) 5.66% or 204,884
5. Vojislav Seselj (Radical Party, SRS) 4.49% or 162,480
6. Bosko Obradovic (Dveri Movement) 2.29% or 82,790
7. Sasa Radulovic (Enough is Enough movement, DJB) 1.41% or 51,235
8. Milan Stamatovic (‘For a Healthier Serbia’) 1.16% or 41,981
9. Nenad Canak (League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, LSV) 1.13% or 40,824
10. Aleksandar Popovic (Democratic Party, DSS) 1.04% or 37,783
11. Miroslav Parovic (National Freedom Movement, NSP) 0.32% or 11,439

TURNOUT
3,621, 353 or 54.51 per cent (provisional)

Source: Republic Electoral Commission, Serbia (RIK)

 

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