Serbia Election Favored Ruling Party, European Observers Say

(Bloomberg) -- Serbia’s snap election on Sunday was marred by irregularities, media bias and the misuse of state resources that skewed the race in favor of President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling party, according to European observers.

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The president’s Progressive Party won an outright majority in the 250-seat parliament and prevailed in a parallel race for the Belgrade city assembly. The election reinforced Vucic’s decade-long dominance of the country, but opponents alleged vote-buying and busing in people from neighboring Bosnia had affected the outcome of the race in the capital.

The election, Serbia’s third in less than four years, offered choice but the “pressure on voters, as well as the decisive involvement of the president and the ruling party’s systemic advantages undermined the election process overall,” the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe said on Monday.

Read more: Serbian Leader’s Party Wins Snap Ballot, Extending Dominance

Representatives from the OSCE, European Parliament and Council of Europe monitored the campaigns and some polling stations on Sunday.

Serbia has a legal framework for democratic elections, but “observers noted the misuse of public resources, the lack of separation between the official functions and campaign activities, and intimidation and pressure on voters, including cases of vote buying,” according to the OSCE.

Vucic won his second term as president last year, and was not a candidate in the latest race. Yet he campaigned intensely for his party which “with bias in the media, contributed to an uneven playing field,” Reinhold Lopatka, who led the OSCE mission to Serbia, told reporters in Belgrade.

Acting Prime Minister Ana Brnabic dismissed allegations of voting irregularities as “fake news.” The opposition has called for street protests in Belgrade and several thousand gathered outside the seat of election authorities in the capital, chanting against Vucic and demanding a repeat ballot for Belgrade municipal assembly.

Some protesters tried to force their way into the building but were prevented by security. Politicians representing the main opposition parties said they would go on a hunger strike unless the authorities accept their complaint that the vote in Belgrade was rigged.

(Updates with protest by opposition supporters, from eighth paragraph)

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