Serbia’s ruling party crushes rivals in vote as global powers watch
- Win gives President Aleksandar Vucic renewed mandate to tackle issues from post-coronavirus recovery to mending ties with Kosovo and quest for EU membership
- Landslide victory followed election boycott by biggest opposition parties over unfair conditions
Serbia’s president led his party to a landslide victory in coronavirus-tinged general elections, securing a crushing majority in a country that is at the centre of a struggle for influence among global powers.
Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party won 63.4 per cent of Sunday’s general election, enough to take sufficient seats in parliament to change any law, according to preliminary results from IPSOS. The pollster’s results came from a simultaneous count made alongside electoral authorities.
The win will allow him to tighten his political dominance over the former Yugoslav republic that began when he transformed himself from nationalist firebrand to a pro-European Union prime minister in 2014.
It also renews the government’s mandate to tackle thorny issues ranging from trying to lead the economy into a post-virus recovery to mending ties with Kosovo and navigating the uncertain path toward European Union membership.
In second place behind the Progressives was the Socialist Party of Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic with 10.3 per cent, according to IPSOS. At least one more party is expected to have cleared the 3 per cent threshold to enter parliament.