(17 Mar 2014) The ruling centre-right party won a landslide victory in Serbian parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to an independent poll.
The Serbian Progressive Party has vowed to overhaul the nation's struggling economy and push for membership of the European Union
The Belgrade-based CeSID polling group said the party won about 160 seats in in the country's 250-seat parliament.
Its coalition partner in the current Serbian government, the Serbian Socialist Party, came second with about 50 seats.
The rest of the seats went to the pro-Western Democratic Party and the New Democratic Party of former President Boris Tadic - the two groups that split up before the vote.
It was one of the most convincing victories by a party since the multi-party system was introduced in Serbia in the 1990s.
The Progressives are expected to choose their leader Aleksandar Vucic - a former hard-line, pro-Russian nationalist who has become a pro-EU advocate - as prime minister.
In his victory speech, Vucic pledged to vigorously fight corruption and crime, and revive the economy in the troubled Balkan nation of about seven (m) million people.
"Vucic can rule on his own. It will not make any difference if he makes a bigger coalition," political analyst Dragan Bujosevic said on Monday.
"Everyone is aware that he has so much power, and that he is the only one who decides everything, and this is why he doesn't need a bigger coalition," he added.
Turnout was about 52 percent - slightly less than during the 2012 parliamentary election that brought the Progressives, former allies of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, back to power in Serbia.
The vote came as Serbia, a long-time international pariah for fomenting wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, is officially seeking entry into the EU, amid deep economic problems and simmering social discontent because of plunging living standards.
Serbia this year opened membership talks with the EU after signing a deal normalising ties with Kosovo, a former province which split in 2008, but whose independence Serbia's refuses to recognise.
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