Serbia’s President Vucic expected to win second term

Serbia’s incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic is set to win presidential vote on Sunday with 59.8% of the votes, according to a projection by pollsters Ipsos and CeSID, based on a sample of the partial polling station count.

Zdravko Ponos, a retired army general representing the pro-European and centrist Alliance for Victory coalition is set to come second with 17.1% of the votes.

In the parliamentary vote Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is set to come first with 43.6% of votes, Ipsos and CeSID projections showed.

The United for Victory opposition alliance trailed behind with 12.9% of the votes.

As the SNS would likely fail to secure enough seats in the 250 parliament to rule alone, it will have to seek coalition partners.

According to the State Election Commission turnout, based on counting 7.7% of the electorate was 58.54%.

Vucic ran for the second five-year term on a promise of peace and stability just as Russia has invaded Ukraine, which has put Serbia under pressure from the West to choose between its traditional ties with Moscow and aspirations to join the European Union (EU).

CeSID and CRTA pollsters reported several irregularities, including photographing of ballots.

The opposition boycotted a parliamentary election in 2020, allowing Vucic’s SNS party and its allies to secure 188 seats in the 250-seat parliament.

Voters from Kosovo which declared independence in 2008, were taken to polling stations in Serbia proper by bus.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has had a big impact on campaigning in Serbia, which is still recovering from the Balkan wars and isolation of the 1990s.

Serbia is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas, while its army maintains ties with Russia’s military.

Although Serbia backed two United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet it refused to impose sanctions against Moscow.

Opposition and human rights watchdogs also accuse Vucic and his allies of an autocratic style of rule, corruption, nepotism, controlling the media, attacks on political opponents and ties with organized crime. Vucic and his allies have repeatedly denied all those allegations.