(17 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade - 17 December 2023
1. Various of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic voting
STORYLINE:
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic cast his vote on Sunday in early parliamentary and local elections that observers say are being held in an atmosphere of intimidation and media bias.
The election does not include the presidency, but the governing authorities, backed by pro-government media, have run the campaign as a referendum on Vucic.
Even before the vote started on Sunday, campaign monitors have reported pressure on voters, fearmongering and abuse of public offices and institutions fostered by the authorities.
Reports of vote-buying and voter-bribing have also mounted.
The main contest in the parliamentary and local elections is expected to be between Vucic's governing right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, and a centrist coalition which is trying to undermine the populists who have ruled the troubled country since 2012.
The Serbia Against Violence opposition list is expected to mount the biggest challenge to the populists on the ballot for the city council in Belgrade.
An opposition victory in the capital would seriously dent Vucic’s hardline rule in the country, analysts say.
Several right-wing groups, including pro-Russian parties, as well as Socialists allied to Vucic, are also running for control of the 250-seat parliament and local councils in some 60 cities and towns, as well as regional authorities in the northern Vojvodina province.
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