The Serbian opposition announced on Tuesday, December 26, that it would boycott the new vote, scheduled for December 30, in thirty of the country’s eight thousand offices, judging that this would not be enough to make it accept the overall result of the legislative elections of December 17, won, according to her, fraudulently by the nationalist right.
“The elections that will be repeated in a number of polling stations cannot undo the fraud or correct the injustice that occurred on December 17. This is why we will not participate in the repeat election,” the Serbia Against Violence coalition said in a statement.
According to her, “there will be no point in voting when MPs are on hunger strike due to proven fraud, political dissidents are arrested and students are beaten by the police and arrested.”
Questioning the results of the December 17 vote, seven opposition members are currently on hunger strike while daily protests are held in front of the electoral commission.
According to official results, the SNS (nationalist right) party of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won 46% of the votes in the legislative elections, compared to 23.5% for the opposition coalition.
But Serbia Against Violence denounced fraud, claiming in particular that Serb voters from neighboring Bosnia had been allowed to vote illegally in Belgrade. International observers, including those from the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, have also reported “irregularities” – “vote buying” and “ballot stuffing”, including .
Denouncing fraud, opposition demonstrators attempted to enter Belgrade town hall on Sunday evening by breaking windows. The police repelled them with pepper spray. On Monday, protesters blocked arteries in the capital demanding a review of the electoral lists, and threatened to continue their action on Wednesday if the authorities did not accede to their demands.