May 20 (SeeNews) - Serbia will not hold early parliamentary elections this year, president Aleksandar Vucic said, backtracking on an earlier statement.
"As things stand, the vote will be held at the beginning of next year. In the winter or spring, by all means," Vucic said in a video file posted on the YouTube channel of public broadcaster RTS on Friday.
In March, the leadership of Serbia's ruling populist conservative party SNS agreed that early parliamentary elections may be held in June. "The SNS board has unanimously approved calling snap elections in June, with one abstention - mine," Vucic said back then.
Serbia is set to hold regular parliamentary elections in the spring of next year.
The Alliance for Serbia has organised a series of protests against what it sees as an increasingly autocratic rule by Vucic and the SNS-led government. Protests have been held in 60 Serbian cities in addition to Belgrade since December 7, following an assault on Borko Stefanovic, leader of the Serbian Left party.
A total of 165 out of 250 members of Serbia's parliament support the SNS-led coalition government of prime minister Ana Brnabic. Three opposition parties in parliament are members of the Alliance for Serbia - the centre-left Democratic Party, Dveri, and the People's Party, holding a total of 24 seats.
A coalition led by SNS won 131 seats in parliament in the early general election held on April 24, 2016.