New ballots will be held in 28 polling stations in Serbia. This is what the Electoral Commission decided, in the face of the contested legislative and municipal elections on Sunday, December 17. The opposition denounces the presence of some 40,000 false voters in Belgrade alone.
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A thousand protesters demonstrated in front of the Republican Electoral Commission in Belgrade, to denounce the fraud in legislative and municipal elections from Sunday December 17. According to the opposition coalition, “more than 40,000 people” voted in the capital – where local elections were also held – without being residents, transported by bus from Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity in neighboring Bosnia. However, if Bosnian Serbs who have dual nationality have the right to participate in national elections, they cannot vote in local elections, specifies Agence France presse. Several videos posted on social networks on Sunday claimed to show the arrival of voters in one of the city’s stadiums, where they were told in which neighborhoods they should vote.
It was yesterday evening, Wednesday, that the deadline for filing complaints relating to the electoral process expired. Complaints that the Commission will have to examine, reports our correspondent in Belgrade, Laurent Rouy.
In the streets, Miroslav Aleksic, an opposition leader and member of the “Serbia Against Violence” coalition, toughened his demands. He is now calling for new elections to be held throughout Serbia. A group of students announces that they want to block certain arteries in Belgrade from next week if their demands are not heard.
In the pro-government media, the tone is very different. The outgoing mayor of Belgrade speaks seriously about the risk of civil war. International criticism of the elections has been silenced. However, the OSCE, the European Parliament, Germany, Great Britain and the United States have pointed out the fraud, criticized the electoral process or even declared their concern about the state of democracy in Serbia.
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