BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s snap elections have been marred by “unjust competition” by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the presence of President Aleksandar Vucic in the campaign, media bias and vote buying, an international monitoring mission said on Monday.
The populist SNS won 46.72% of the votes, according to state election commission preliminary results, based on the count from 96% of the polling stations.
The centre-left opposition alliance Serbia Against Violence came second with 23.56% of the votes and the Socialist Party of Serbia third with 6.56%.
“The decisive involvement of the President dominated the electoral process, and the use of his name by one of the candidate lists, together with bias in the media, contributed to an uneven playing field,” Reinhold Lopatka, the leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, told a news conference.
Vucic actively campaigned for his SNS party although he was not on the election list named after him – “Aleksandar Vucic-Serbia Must Not Stop”.
Observers also said they have registered the misuse of public resources, a lack of separation between official functions and campaign activities, and intimidation and pressure on voters, including cases of vote buying.
The opposition SPN alliance late on Sunday complained over what they described as major violations of election procedure, including voters migration, bribing and rigging of election results and demanded repetition of local votes for the Belgrade city parliament.
According to CeSID and Ipsos pollsters, the SNS won 38.9% in local election in Belgrade, while the SPN secured 34.6% of backing. The nationalist NADA coalition came third with 6%.
The SPN alliance also called its supporters to protest in the centre of the city later on Monday and lodged numerous complaints to the city election commission.
With its population of 1.4 million people, Belgrade represents about a quarter of Serbia’s electorate, and its mayor is seen as one of the country’s most influential officials.
“We call on the competent authorities to investigate properly,” Klemen Groselj, the head of delegation from the European Parliament said referring to entire election process.
Observers also pointed out numerous reports of journalists who were verbally insulted by state officials, as well as co-ordinated attacks on journalists through pro-government media.
The international election observation mission to Serbia totalled 361 observers from 45 countries, including 254 experts of the Warsaw-based OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The observers also urged Serbian authorities to address all the shortcomings.
“Any efforts to tilt the playing field is a cause of concern and could potentially impact the (vote) outcome,” Farah Karimi, of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told reporters.
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic, editing by Ed Osmond)
