March 11 (SeeNews) - A coalition led by populist conservative Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, of president Aleksandar Vucic, will announce the name of its candidate for prime minister in the coming days, after winning most of the votes in the December general election, Vucic said.
After holding consultations with all parties that will enter the new parliament, Vucic said he received information that the SNS-led coalition will be able to form the new government. He was speaking at a news conference on Sunday evening, according to a video uploaded on the website of public television RTS.
"Therefore, in the next days we will announce the name of the mandate-holder for forming the new cabinet," Vucic said.
He added that the constitutive session of the new parliament has been postponed for next week, calling for a new government to be formed by April 1.
Last week, Vucic announced that outgoing prime minister Ana Brnabic will step down and become parliament speaker once the new assembly is constituted.
Once Brnabic is appointed parliament speaker, she will call a rerun of the Belgrade municipal election to be held on June 2, Vucic said on Sunday.
Municipal elections in Serbia were held alongside the general election in December 2023. In January, Vucic said there may be a repeat of the December municipal elections in Belgrade, which triggered a wave of protests over alleged vote fraud.
SNS 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 would 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.
Following the December vote, 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”.