MASS PROTEST AGAINST VUCIC’S ELECTION AS PRESIDENT IN BELGRADE ~

The action is dubbed “Protests against dictatorship” and comprises the Serbians, mostly young people, dissatisfied with presidential election outcome.

The election took place on Sunday, and Serbian incumbent Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was elected country’s president with over one million votes or over 55 percent. The demonstrators gathered near the buildings of country’s Parliament, the Republican Election Commission and the Radio Television of Serbia, chanting slogans against the authorities.

According to N1 TV channel, some of the protesters were throwing eggs at the parliament’s building, while a police officer said he was injured by a stone, thrown at him.

The organizer of a demonstration against Vucic is unknown, while the protesters have no attributes of any political party.

Vucic’s win was not surprising, as he was the favorite in the race, according to opinion polls in the country. However, the date of the second round of the election was scheduled for April 16, provided that none of the hopefuls receive 50 percent or higher of all votes.

 

********************************** VUCIC REGAINS CONTROL ***********************************

SNS leader and Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic has declared his victory in the presidential elections held in Serbia on Sunday, April 2.

Vučić won Serbia’s presidential election yesterday by a huge margin, confirming his domination of the Balkan country as he pursues a delicate balancing act between Europe and Russia.

Vučić, 47, avoided a run-off by taking around 55% of votes; his nearest rival, opposition candidate and former rights advocate Sasa Janković, trailed on just over 16%, according to a two projections by polling groups CRTA and Ipsos.

Vučić will take on the largely ceremonial post at the end of May but is expected to retain de facto power through his control of Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party.

The result marked a political humiliation for Serbia’s beleaguered opposition parties, which say Vučić’s rule is increasingly autocratic.

Vučić made clear his change of job would not alter the former Yugoslav republic’s geopolitical balance between the European Union, which Vučić wants Serbia to join, and Russia, with which Serbs share their Orthodox Christian faith and Slavic heritage.

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) announced on Monday that based on 92 percent of electoral material, Vucic won 55.1 percent of the vote – i.e., 1,845,736 votes.

He is followed by Sasa Jankovic (16.27 percent – 545,039 votes), Luka Maksimovic (9.44 – 316,068), Vuk Jeremic (5.64 – 189,052), and Vojislav Seselj (4.47 – 149,578).

The turnout was 54.6 percent of all registered voters.

Late on Sunday, CeSID and Ipsos pollsters announced that the ruling coalition’s candidate had won over 50 percent of all cast ballots.

CeSID said that based on a sample of 93.3 pct of cast votes, Vucic won 55.7 percent.

There were 6,724,949 registered voters who were eligible to vote in one of the 8,396 polling stations.

In Kosovo and Metohija, the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) designated 90 polling stations for 105,929 registered voters.

29 more were opened today in prisons, where a total of 9.326 citizens were eligible to cast their votes.

53 additional polling stations were located abroad for 11,590 registered citizens of Serbia. The voting took place on Saturday in Britain, Canada, and the US

************************************* PRESIDENT NIKOLIC NOT TO RETURN , FINISHED WITH POLITICS *****************

Serbia’s current President Tomislav Nikolic on Monday congratulated Aleksandar Vucic on his victory in the presidential elections held the previous day.

Nikolic also revealed that he had no plans to “return” to the SNS – the party he founded along with Vucic in 2008, when they split from Vojislav Seselj’s SRS – and from whose helm he stepped down in 2012, when he was elected as president.

Nikolic was not present at the SNS HQ during Sunday’s election night and celebration of Vucic’s first-round victory – although he previously spoke during the ruling coalition candidate’s final campaign rally in Belgrade.

Nikolic made no statements during the night, but he spoke to Russia’s Sputnik on Monday to say that he “honestly thinks he will not return to the party.”

“We’ll see, I wouldn’t be engaged in politics any longer, but I have established such good contacts for Serbia, that I could help Serbia, I would say, with the unprecedented friendship I have with at least a few presidents with whom we get a lot done, and I will talk about this both with Vucic, and with the future prime minister,” he said.