BELGRADE – The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic declared victory in a snap parliamentary vote late on December 17, even as election officials had just begun the process of counting votes in what was seen as a crucial test of Vucic’s strength in the face of a united opposition from a pro-Western coalition.
Vucic told the gathered crowd at the SNS party headquarters in Belgrade that "victory will be more convincing than the best forecasts."
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic – deputy head of the SNS – told reporters, "Welcome to the celebration," as she spoke from party headquarters after polls closed in a vote marked by opposition claims of voting irregularities.
She said that, according to her party’s data, the SNS won 47.1 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections, followed by the Serbia Against Violence coalition with 23 percent, and the Socialist Party of Serbia with 6.7 percent.
Brnabic claimed that the SNS will be able to form a majority in the parliament by itself and denied opposition claims of irregularities in the election process.
The nongovernmental Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) -- established in 1997 -- and the Ipsos agency saw the results as being tighter, saying their data showed that the SNS had won 38.4 percent of the vote, with the main opposition coalition taking 35.1 percent.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. local time, with official results to be reported within 24 hours, according to election officials.
WATCH: Serbian citizens from northern Kosovo got on buses early on December 17 to reach polling stations in Serbia. Some 120,000 voters from Kosovo are eligible to cast ballots in Serbia's snap parliamentary and municipal elections. Kosovo's government prohibits Serbian elections from being held on its territory.
Opposition and domestic observer groups reported scattered irregularities at voting sites. Some 5,800 international monitors were in Serbia, with their observations expected over the next couple of days.
The Republican Election Commission told a news conference that as of 7 p.m., 55.5 percent of registered voters had cast ballots, about the same as at the same time in the April 2022 parliamentary vote. Final turnout figures will be reported along with election results, officials said. In April 2022, the final level was 58.6 percent.
Opposition figures had urged for a high turnout in hopes of weakening Vucic's grip on power.
Rasa Nedeljkov, program director of the Serbian nongovernmental CRTA observation mission, claimed the group’s observers were physically attacked and that their vehicles were destroyed at the Odzaci municipality in Serbia’s north.
Police later said they had arrested one suspect related to the incident and that an investigation was being conducted.
Nedeljkov added that voters were bused in from neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serbian entity to Belgrade, where they voted instead of at their home locations.
The observation mission of the CeSID – established in Belgrade in 1997 – reported viewing “repeated noncompliance” with election procedures at a number of polling stations and the presence of “propaganda material” at some voting sites, among other issues.
After polls closed, representatives of the opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence told a news conference they had recorded more than 450 electoral violations.
"Our legal teams are making efforts to respond to all the irregularities recorded so far," party spokesman Predrag Mitrovic said.
U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill said he had visited several election sites in the capital, Belgrade.
“The American Embassy has 14 teams spread across Serbia and Belgrade," he said, adding that he could not yet speak about the overall evaluation of the election.
Vucic, who is not on the December 17 ballot, was seeking to bolster the standing of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party as observers warned that the election campaign had been marred by intimidation and media bias.
Along with the parliamentary election, voting is taking place for municipal posts in 65 towns and cities.
In the capital, Belgrade, voters were to elect representatives to both the 110-member City Assembly, which chooses a mayor for a four-year term, and to the city's smaller, constituent councils.
In his brief remarks following the election, Vucic said, "I can't say anything about Belgrade, because not a single ballot has been counted in Belgrade."
Late polling there showed the unified, pro-European opposition, the Serbia Against Violence coalition, in a tight race with the president's eponymous Aleksandar Vucic-Belgrade Must Not Stop coalition and its former mayor.
"I expect it to be the same as before. It doesn't matter who's in power," one Belgrade voter, Branislav Zoranovic, told RFE/RL after casting his ballot. "What is important is that there is a good situation among citizens and that everyone has their own conscience."
Meanwhile, in neighboring Kosovo, more than 22,000 Serbian citizens living there -- who have the right to participate in the elections -- embarked on an organized journey across the border to participate in the Serbian voting.
Numerous buses departed at 7 a.m. from various cities in Kosovo’s Serb-majority regions – mainly North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, and Leposaviq – resulting in long lines at the Bernjak and Jarinje border points with Serbia.
Most were traveling to polling stations in the south of Serbia, including Vranje, Kursumlija, Raska, and Tutin.
Marica Jovanovic of Gracanica said she “will vote because of my children. I am retired. My time has passed, but the children must have a better future. I have no other motive.”
Serbia and Kosovo are bitter rivals, and the government in Pristina has barred Serbian polling inside the country.
Vucic dissolved the country's 250-seat National Assembly on November 1, less than halfway through its four-year mandate, in the face of mounting pressure following two mass shootings in May. The shootings, which killed 19 people, triggered angry protests and calls for Vucic and other national leaders to resign.
After the Serbian Progressive Party refused to implement many of the demands of the opposition-led protests, the main pro-European opposition parties agreed to run together under the banner Serbia Against Violence.
The last elections in April 2022 saw the ruling party take the most votes, while the president himself comfortably won a new five-year term. However, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the voting had been marred by its "absence" of level-playing fields.
Vucic's critics have complained that the president had tightened his grip on power through his control of the media and government. Some public opinion surveys showed almost half of the country did not believe the elections would be free or fair.
Since taking office in May 2017, Vucic has maintained close ties with Russia, even after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while also trying to balance relations with the West, in hopes of eventually joining the European Union.
Serbia has said it respects Ukraine's territorial integrity, but it has also resisted EU pressure to join Western sanctions to punish Moscow for the Ukraine war.