Thousands of people took to the streets in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on the evening of December 18, the day after the latest snap general election delivered a landslide victory for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). 

International election observers reported deficiencies in the general election on December 17, but the focus of protesters was on the local election in Belgrade, which opposition politicians claim was rigged. 

Protesters chanted “thieves” as they gathered on the evening of December 18. 

A group of demonstrators forced their way through the barrier outside the election office. The protesters also hurled eggs, tomatoes and rolls of toilet paper.

Opposition MPs Marinika Tepic and Miroslav Aleksic formally submitted a complaint to the election authority alleging fraud in the municipal vote. Speaking outside the Republican Election Commission, Tepic said she and other opposition politicians will camp inside the building and start a hunger strike. 

Among the claims made by the opposition are that as many as 40,000 people were brought in from neighbouring countries, mainly Bosnia & Herzegovina, which has a large Serb minority, to vote in the Belgrade election. 

“[W]e must not recognise the Belgrade elections that were stolen, by the abuse of the law, by the relocation of people from other countries. We have an example of a minister from another country voting,” Tepic told journalists as reported by N1. 

She said that she and Aleksic had provided “evidence about the theft of elections in Belgrade, voter fraud, attempts to steal electoral will, import of phantom voters from neighbouring countries, some of whom were in Belgrade for the first time”. 

President Aleksandar Vucic denied the accusation that the SNS bad brought in voters from abroad in his victory speech late on December 17. 

Results already in show that the SNS, informally led by Vucic, won around 47% of the vote in the general election, with the opposition Serbia Against Violence coalition trailing on 23%. This would give the SNS an absolute majority in the next parliament. 

In Belgrade, polls from IPSOS and CESID indicate the SNS is in the lead though by a narrower margin, beating Serbia Against Violence by 38% to 35%.

A report from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR) says election day was “marked by numerous procedural deficiencies, including inconsistent application of safeguards during voting and counting, frequent instances of overcrowding, breaches in secrecy of the vote, and numerous instances of group voting.” 

It noted “instances of serious irregularities, including vote-buying and ballot box stuffing”. “Frequent instances of group voting, some incidents of undue influence on voters, unauthorized tracking of voter turnout, and photographing of ballots were also observed,” the report added.

Belgrade-based NGO the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) criticised the Belgrade election. 

“As many as half of the declared lists in the Belgrade elections are suspected of having gained their place on the ballot illegally, which is potentially the most extensive case of forgery of candidacy signatures in electoral history,” a report from CRTA said. 

“Numerous indicators recorded in the campaign, and then during the election day, speak of the implementation of electoral engineering in the Belgrade elections, namely the manipulation of voting rights and organised migration of voters in order to shape the election result in Belgrade.”