Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has rejected calls for an international probe into alleged voting irregularities during recent parliamentary and municipal elections that sparked weeks of opposition-led protests demanding the vote be annulled.
Protesters have taken to the streets of Belgrade and other cities and towns in Serbia since the disputed December 17 elections that were won by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), according to preliminary results.
The Serbia Against Violence coalition, which placed second in the general election, has accused the SNS of widespread vote fraud, which the authorities deny.
An international monitoring mission that followed the balloting said the SNS had gained an unfair advantage through media bias, the improper influence of Vucic, and voting irregularities such as vote-buying.
Serbian authorities rejected the allegations.
In ruling out any outside probe, Vucic said on January 2 that elections in Serbia are “a matter for [Serbian] state institutions.”
Vucic suggested that Serbia Against Violence, which has led the protests, objects to the results, particularly in the vote for Belgrade city authorities, because the party did not poll as well as it had expected.
Serbia Against Violence came second in the election with 23.56 percent of the parliamentary vote. The Socialist Party of Serbia was third with 6.56 percent.
Final results are expected to be published sometime this month.
Thousands rallied in Belgrade on December 30 in what was described as the biggest protest to date, with demonstrators chanting, “Thieves!”
That rally in the Serbian capital was organized by an independent civic initiative, ProGlas(Pro-Vote) that had campaigned for high turnout ahead of the ballot.
The crowd at the rally on December 30 roared in approval at the appearance of Marinika Tepic, a leading opposition politician who had been on a hunger strike since the ballot.
Tepic and two other opposition leaders, Jelena Milosevic and Branko Miljus, ended their hunger strikes on December 31 after about 12 days.
The opposition has urged an international probe of the vote after representatives of several global watchdogs reported multiple irregularities, including cases of vote-buying and ballot-stuffing.
Local election monitors also alleged that voters from across Serbia and neighboring countries were registered and bused in to cast ballots in Belgrade.