Serbia's outgoing PM Brnabic elected parliament speaker

Brnabic was backed by 153 MPs in the 250-seat assembly, with the remaining present 5 MPs voting against, the government said in a statement.

The MPs also elected six deputy speakers and a general secretary.

Brnabic is the deputy head of the populist conservative Serbian Progressive party (SNS) of president Aleksandar Vucic, which won the December 17 parliamentary election with 46.75% of the vote. Its coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), was backed by 6.55% of the voters. Together, SNS and SPS have an absolute majority in the 250-seat parliament. Opposition pro-European coalition Serbia Against Violence came in second with 23.66% of the vote. The election results triggered a wave of protests over alleged vote fraud.

Following the elections, the European Union said Serbia's electoral process requires tangible improvement, after a team of international observers pointed to a series of irregularities, such as "vote buying" and "ballot box stuffing”.

Broadcaster RTS reported on Wednesday that most opposition MPs had left the constitutive session before the voting for the new parliament speaker took place.

Earlier this month, president Vucic said the SNS-led coalition will announce the name of its candidate for prime minister in the coming days.