Serbian president wins second term, headed for election victory
- President Aleksandar Vucic secured about 59 per cent of votes; result suggests he will consolidate his dominance since his party took over the government a decade ago
- The president has struck a balance between Russia, a traditional ally, and the EU, which piled on pressure to adopt sanctions
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won a second term in office and his ruling party headed for an election victory on Sunday, putting the leader on track to extend his coalition’s decade-long grip on power, according to an early third-party count.
Vucic secured about 59 per cent of the vote in the presidential contest, more than enough to avoid a second-round run-off ballot, according to a partial count taken by the non-governmental Centre for Free Elections and Democracy. His Progressive Party-led bloc won about 43 per cent of the vote, while a coalition of centre-left opposition parties running as United for Serbia’s Victory took 13 per cent.
The result suggests Vucic will be able to consolidate his dominance since his party first took over the government a decade ago in the nation of 7 million. A largely fragmented opposition has struggled to challenge the Progressive-led coalition and assailed Vucic for increasingly concentrating power into his hands.
In neighbouring Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party took a commanding early lead in elections there, dimming the chances of a six-party opposition alliance to block him from a fourth consecutive term.
The Serbian leader is likely to form a majority in Serbia’s 250-seat legislature with his Socialist allies, even though his bloc’s parliamentary result fell short of pre-election polls showing that the Progressive-led bloc could win more than 50 per cent of ballots.