BELGRADE (Serbia), June 17 (SeeNews) – Serbia will hold regular parliamentary elections on Sunday, which the ruling populist conservative Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is expected to win amidst a boycott by major opposition parties.
A total of 21 parties and coalitions are running for 250 seats in parliament. The vote, originally scheduled for April 26, was postponed to June 21 due to the state of emergency imposed by the government in order to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The latest opinion polls put voter support for the SNS-led coalition Aleksandar Vucic - For Our Children at between 41.6% and 61.0%, comfortably ahead of the other candidates.
A survey conducted by polling agency Faktor Plus on June 12 showed that Aleksandar Vucic - For Our Children enjoys 58.2% support versus 12.5% for Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), a partner of SNS in the current government coalition.
The Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS), a populist conservative party describing itself as a centre-right organisation, and social-liberal Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) are expected to enter parliament for the first time, by winning 4.9% and 3.4% of the vote, respectively, according to the Faktor Plus poll.
The rightist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) of Vojislav Seselj will most likely pass the 3.0% threshold, with 3.4% support, while a coalition led by the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) has exactly 3.0% support, the poll showed.
Four of the main opposition parties - Alliance for Serbia, the Social Democratic Party (SDS) of former president Boris Tadic, centre-left Together for Serbia (ZZS) and reformist Civic Platform of diplomat Jovan Jovanovic, are boycotting the elections, claiming that they would be unfair.
Alliance for Serbia, established before the local elections in Belgrade held in March 2018, organised a series of protests against what it sees as an increasingly autocratic rule by Vucic and the government coalition led by SNS. Protests have been held in 60 Serbian cities in addition to Belgrade for 16 weekends in a row since December 7, 2018, following the assault on Borko Stefanovic, leader of Serbian Left party.
A coalition led by SNS won 131 of 250 seats in Serbia's parliament in the early general election held on April 24, 2016. The incumbent SNS-led government is supported by 165 MPs.
Following are key facts about the Serbian political system:
Serbian MPs are elected for a four-year term.
The country has a proportional representation system, i.e. the number of seats won by a party or coalition is proportionate to the number of votes received in the elections. Voters vote for a list of candidates, with the party choosing the order of candidates on the list and thus, in effect, their probability of being elected.
Each list can include no more than 250 candidates, equal to the number of seats at the parliament.
To secure representation, a party or a coalition needs to collect at least 3.0% of all valid ballots cast. However, this threshold does not apply to ethnic minority lists.
On the election day, polling stations open at 07:00 CET and close at 20:00 CET.
The Electoral Commission will announce the results of the election within 96 hours after polling stations close.