Allegations of electoral fraud in Serbia
Protesters block road to ministry in Belgrade
December 25, 2023, 4:59 p.m
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Irregularities in Serbia’s elections lead to ongoing protests in the capital Belgrade. After their attack on the town hall on Sunday, demonstrators are now using a blockade to ensure that no one can pass the road to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Autonomy.
A good week after the parliamentary election in Serbia, which was marred by irregularities, demonstrators blocked a street in the center of the capital Belgrade. As an AFP journalist observed, several hundred protesters blocked the road leading to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Autonomy. Several road blockades had been announced in advance.
Most of the demonstrators who paralyzed traffic in front of the ministry were students belonging to the “Borba” (Struggle) protest movement. They are demanding a new check of the electoral roll. President Vucic’s right-wing populist SNS party clearly won in the parliamentary elections on December 17th. Local elections were also held that day.
An international observer mission reported a number of “irregularities” after the election, including cases of violence, vote buying and the stuffing of ballot boxes with fraudulent ballots. Citing this report, the Foreign Office in Berlin said the violations were “unacceptable for a country with EU candidate status.” The election results sparked days of protests in front of the Serbian Election Commission building. Several representatives of the loose opposition alliance “Serbia Against Violence” went on hunger strike to have the election results annulled.
Serbian head of government thanks Russian security authorities
On Sunday evening, protesters attacked the town hall in Belgrade and clashed with the police. The protesters broke several windows and the police pushed them back with pepper spray. President Vucic spoke of a previously planned attempt at a “forcible takeover of state institutions.” Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said the plans for the protests were known in advance – and thanked Russian security authorities for passing on information about them. Today, Monday, President Vucic met the Russian ambassador in Belgrade to discuss the incidents.
Russia, which has a traditionally close relationship with Serbia, described the protests as Western interference. The “attempts of the collective West to destabilize the situation in the country” are “obvious,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in Moscow told the state news agency Ria Novosti. However, she provided no evidence of this.