Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party, said: “This is an absolute victory and it makes me happy.” Photo: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg < p>Serbia's Moscow-friendly leader claimed victory in snap parliamentary elections after he was accused of busing 40,000 people to vote in liberal Belgrade.
Aleksandar Vucic declared his populist cause The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won a poll he organized after two mass shootings sparked protests that weakened the president's authority.
“This is an absolute victory and that makes me happy,” Mr Vucic said on Sunday ahead of official results expected late Monday.
His SNS party received about 47 percent of the votes in parliament. votes, which is enough for an absolute majority in the 250-seat parliament. While the result, if confirmed, would mean the SNS could govern alone, it would likely seek junior coalition partners to shore up its slim 127-member majority.
The pro-European group of parties is estimated to be “Serbia against violence” received 23 percent of the vote. He accused SNS of rigging the election, said he would file a complaint with the state election commission, and called for a re-vote.
“We have witnessed a serious attempt to rig the elections,” Miroslav Aleksic, one of the group's leaders, said on Sunday evening.
Serbia Against Violence claims that 40,000 identity documents were issued to people who do not live in the capital, amid claims that ethnic Serbs from neighboring Bosnia were being bussed en masse to Belgrade to vote.
Opposition supporters protest in Belgrade on Monday after the president declared victory. Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP
SNS was projected to win 38 percent of the ballots in the Belgrade City Hall elections, while the Serbia Against Violence party won 35 percent.
There were reports that voters were paid or coerced into voting for SNS, and a group of observers were reported to have been attacked and their car attacked with baseball bats in a town in northern Serbia.
Opposition parties and human rights activists also accused SNS of vote bribery, stifling media freedom, violence against opponents, corruption and links to organized crime. Mr Vucic denies all allegations of any election manipulation.
Serbia and Russia share historical ties, and Belgrade, heavily dependent on Russian gas, has not joined the West in imposing sanctions over the illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“We welcome this achievement by Mr. Vucic,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. He called Serbia, an EU candidate, a “brotherly” country, adding that Moscow hoped the result would lead to “further strengthening of friendship.”
A significant number of Serbs support Moscow's position. illegal war in Ukraine and hate Kyiv, which supports NATO because of its airstrikes in the wars after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.
Belgrade has also become a hub for Russians critical of the offensive fleeing Moscow, with flights still open between the two countries, unlike Russia to most of Europe.
Opposition leaders at a protest outside the electoral commission in Belgrade on Monday Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP
Viktor Orban, the pro-Russian prime minister of neighboring Hungary, also congratulated Mr Vucic on his “ overwhelming victory in the elections.”
The nationalist leader blocked a €50 million aid package for Ukraine and opposed the start of accession talks with Kiev at last week's European summit.
The parliamentary elections, the fifth since 2012, coincided with local elections authorities. elections in most municipalities, Belgrade and the northern province of Vojvodina.
The elections did not include the presidency, but governing bodies, backed by dominant pro-government media, campaigned as a referendum on Mr Vucic.< /p>
The Western-facing organization Serbia Against Violence was influential during months of protests sparked by two back-to-back mass shootings in May that killed 18 people, including nine schoolchildren. The shootings were carried out by a 13-year-old and a 21-year-old on several days in a row.
The massacre shook the SNS's decade-long power, and discontent was exacerbated by rising inflation, which reached eight percent in November.
A total of 18 parties and alliances competed for the support of 6.5 million voters.
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