December 14 (SeeNews) - Serbia will hold early general elections on Sunday, which president Aleksandar Vucic's populist conservative Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, is expected to win, opinion polls showed.
Vucic, who is no longer officially SNS leader, has dominated the Serbian political scene in the past decade. He called the snap vote in November, a year and a half after SNS won the last parliamentary election held in April 2022 and formed a coalition government with the Socialist Party.
Sunday's elections come against the backdrop of a wave of protests which began in May, prompted by a mass shooting at a primary school. Protesters claim that the SNS-led government has allowed a culture of violence to spread throughout society, indirectly leading to the school shooting.
Vucic resigned as SNS leader in May, and was succeeded by defence minister Milos Vucevic.
The latest opinion poll, conducted during November 25 - December 4 by polling agency NPSM and published on Tuesday, put voter support for the SNS-led election coalition Serbia Must Not Stop at 39.8%, whilst support for the main opposition force, the coalition Serbia Against Violence, stands at 25.6%. Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), a partner of SNS in the current government coalition, has 8.9% support in the poll, Serbian Movement Dveri I Zavetnici at 6.5%, Hope for Serbia (NDSS) 5.9% and People's Party (NS) at 2.8%.
A previous opinion poll conducted by NPSM during November 5 - 12, showed voter support for Serbia Must Not Stop standing at 39.2%, while Serbia Against Violence had 25.8% support. SPS stood at 8.1%, Serbian Movement Dveri I Zavetnici at 5.1%, Hope for Serbia (NDSS) at 4.4% and People's Party (NS) at 3.2%. A total of 8.4% said they would vote for an opposition party, though were not sure who they would vote for.
A SNS-led coalition and SPS hold among themselves 151 of 250 seats in Serbia's unicameral National Assembly. SNS won 42.96% of the vote in the last general election, while SPS received 11.44%.
Following are key facts about the upcoming vote and Serbia's election system:
Candidates representing 19 parties and coalitions are running for seats in parliament. Members of parliament are elected for a four-year term.
Serbia 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 chances of being elected. Each list can include no more than 250 candidates, equal to the number of seats in 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. The threshold for entry into parliament was lowered from 5% to 3% in early 2020.
On election day, polling stations open at 07:00 CET and close at 20:00 CET.
The Electoral Commission will announce the results of the vote within 96 hours after polling stations close.