Thousands of people took to the streets of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, again today, Saturday, to demand the cancellation of the election results. Local media reported this. Protesters say the profits of President Aleksandar Vucic's party are fraudulent.
Serbian Radio Nova wrote that a series of prominent Serbian figures took to a platform in central Belgrade to criticize Vucic and the election results. Among them was opposition politician Marinika Tebić, who went on a hunger strike in protest. Elsewhere in the city, a group of students blocked an intersection for 24 hours until Saturday afternoon.
Reuters news agency reported that the opposition had organized daily protests since the December 17 elections, but these were the largest yet. On Sunday evening, demonstrators tried to enter Belgrade City Hall, but police responded with pepper spray and tear gas.
Re-vote
Vucic confirms that the elections were fair, the Associated Press news agency wrote. But according to European observers, the Serbian president intervened in a “decisive” way. The campaign was marred by “harsh rhetoric, biased media, pressure on public sector workers, and misuse of public resources.” Although the polls went smoothly in most cases, observers also witnessed some “serious irregularities” such as vote buying and multiple votes.
The Serbian Electoral Council decided last week that voters could cast their votes again on Saturday in thirty out of more than eight thousand polling stations. This will include about 12,000 voters. The opposition parties announced their boycott of the re-votes because, from their point of view, they “cannot undo fraud.”
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