site.btaElection Silence in Serbia Begins

Election silence before the snap parliamentary and regular presidential elections in Serbia on April 3 has begun. Local elections will also be held in several municipalities, Belgrade included.

Election silence in Serbia begins from 00:00 two days before election day and with the closing of the polling sections at 8:00 pm local time on Sunday. 

Some 6.5 million Serbian citizens are eligible to choose between 18 tickets in the parliamentary elections and eight presidential candidates.

An Ipsos Strategic Management poll shows that the incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic will garner the support of 60.1 per cent the voters, i.e. get an absolute majority. The candidate of the opposition coalition United for Victory of Serbia, retired General Zdravko Ponos, comes second with 16.4 per cent. 

Regarding the parliamentary elections, the poll found that Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) will win 51.4 per cent of the votes and the list of the opposition coalition United for Victory of Serbia, comprising the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), People's Party (NS) and Democratic Party (DS), and headed by Marinika Tepic – 13.8 per cent.

The list of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) is expected to get 8.5 per cent, the green political coalition Moramo (We Must) – 4.5 per cent, the National Democratic Alternative (NADA) conservative nationalist coalition – 4.2 per cent, and the right Serbian Party Oathkeepers (Zavetnici) – 3.4 per cent. 

The Sovereignists and the list of Bosko Obradovic also have the chance to cross the 3.0 per cent threshold for entry into parliament.

Besides these, most minority lists will have representatives in the Serbian parliament, to judge by a poll commissioned by the president’s SNS party and published on the Ipsos Strategic Marketing website.

Voter turnout is expected between 56.9 and 60.5 per cent.

The poll included 3,628 adult Serbian citizens and was conducted between March 29 and 31.

The evening before election silence was declared was packed with TV debates and the parties’ final rallies.

Addressing the rally in Belgrade, Vucic said that Serbia will succeed in preserving peace, national pride and honour, and called upon the people to vote, Tanjug agency reported.

The candidate for mayor of Belgrade nominated by the opposition United for Victory of Serbia, Vladeta Jankovic, also appealed to the Serbs to cast their vote. He told the rally in the capital’s central Nikola Pasic Square that after the elections every citizen of Belgrade would know what they city’s budget was spent on.