Expert: Vucic’s Reelection Is partly Russia’s Triumph  

Voting (Beta/Dragan Gojic)

Paul McCarthy, regional director for Europe in the nonpartisan organization International Republican Institute (IRI), on April 5 said that the reelection of Aleksandar Vucic for Serbian president was in part a triumph of Russia.

“The election result of the Serbian Progressive Party in Serbia is not as good as that of their presidential candidate. It seems that the party failed to win the support of voters they had been hoping for,” McCarthy told Voice of America (VoA).

“It is very good that unlike the previous elections, the opposition did not boycott this vote.” He also said that pluralism had been restored in the Serbian parliament and also in the Belgrade City assembly and that there would be more parties in both assemblies. McCarthy also noted that the election results showed that the voters had endorsed Vucic’s election campaign messages on peace and stability.

Commenting on Election Day atmosphere, McCarthy said that it “concerned” him and that “there was much violence.” “I think that everything that happened on Election Day has not been made public yet, but I am very concerned with violence and attacks on candidates and political party members. A whole picture is yet to be seen, but some form of irregularity was registered at ten percent at least of the polls. Of course, these were not exclusively violent incidents, but irregularities which need to be examined carefully,” he stressed.  

McCarthy further said he was very intrigued with much time it had taken to publish official election results, noting that such delays had given rise to concern.

Asked whether Vucic’s reelection was in some way a victory of Russia in the Balkans, McCarthy replied that “Vucic and other cabinet ministers have been cherishing strong ties with Moscow,” so in that context, the election results could be considered “in part a victory of Russia.”