Ruling Party Leader Declares Victory in Almost All Municipalities

Milos Vucevic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Serbian Progressive Party president Milos Vucevic said on June 2 that the Serbia Tomorrow ticket, headed by his party, had won all local elections with the exceptions of Backa Topola, Senta, Kanjiza and Tutin.

"This is natural for these four municipalities due to the makeup of the population," Vucevic told reporters at the Progressive party's offices in Belgrade. According to him, the highest turnout was 70 percent in Pecinci and the lowest, at 33 percent, in Tutin.

The observer mission of the Crta (Research, Transparency and Accountability Center) non-governmental organization, said in a press release that 41.5 percent -- with a margin of error of 0.4 percent, of voters on the roster for the Belgrade City Assembly had cast their ballots by 7 p.m., adding that this constituted a considerably lower turnout compared to the previous election, in December 2023.

Ana Brnabic, commissioner of the Belgrade chapter of the Serbian Progressive Party, said that the lists dubbed "parallel voting rosters" by the opposition, were lists were of certain voters for the party, who were called "to request that they vote and to check if they had."

"We at the [Serbian Progressive Party] in Belgrade have a list of our members, of members of our coalition partners, our sure votes, sure votes for our coalition partners, family members and friends of our members and sympathizers, and coalition partners -- those are the lists that the people in our call centers have," Brnabic said in a post on the X social media platform. She wrote that the opposition had made up the phrase "parallel voting rosters" to "justify its own laziness and lack of ideas" and asked what would be the purpose of such a list.