Serbia: Thousands protest over election results; oppn demands annulment of vote

Thousands of people gathered in Serbia's capital cityBelgrade on Saturday (Dec 30), protesting over the results of the parliamentary and municipal elections on Dec 17. The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 46.72 per cent of the votes in the parliamentary election and was declared the winner. Serbia Against Violence came second in the election with 23.56 per cent of the vote. The Socialist Party of Serbia was third with 6.56 per cent.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters on Saturday, Serbia Against Violence, which has led protests since Dec 17, accused the SNS of widespread vote fraud. During the protest in a square in central Belgrade, Serbia Against Violence leader Marinika Tepic demanded an annulment of the Dec 17 vote. "I'm sorry that I can't, and I don't have much to tell you. The only thing I can (say) is that I have already said everything and that these elections must be annulled," said Tepic, who has been on a hunger strike since Dec 18.

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She was cheered on by protestors waving Serbian flags.

'Freedom and democracy belong to Belgrade'

Speaking to Reuters, a protestor named Katarina Popovic said, "I expect us to send a signal, a sign that Belgrade is ours, that Belgrade is free. They took it away from us, but we won't give it away. Whether we will succeed this time, we don't know. Maybe we need one more day, ten days, and a hundred days, but we will not give up Belgrade. Freedom, and democracy - this is something that belongs to Belgrade."

"If one feels that something is not right, then one casts a vote to disagree with what is wrong, that is what we can do - not to take the side of what we think is wrong. One day, our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will see who said what at which moment in history and where they were," another protestor told the news agency.

Oppn demands international probe of vote

The opposition has demanded an international investigation of the vote after representatives of several global watchdogs reported multiple irregularities, including cases of vote-buying and ballot box stuffing, the news agency Associated Press reported.

Local election monitors alleged that voters from across Serbia and neighbouring countries were registered and abused in to casting ballots.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the SNS have rejected these allegations as fabricated. President Vucic has said the elections were fair and his party won and accused the opposition of inciting violentprotests to overthrow the government on instructions from abroad. Opposition leaders have, however, denied this.

On Saturday, Deputy PrimeMinister Milos Vucevic said the “small number of demonstrators” at the rally in Belgrade showed that “people don’t want them (the opposition.)”

(With inputs from agencies)