Progressive
party set for victory with leader Aleksandar Vucic pledging to fight corruption
and push to join European Union
The Guardian, Associated Press in Belgrade, Sunday 16 March 2014
Serbs voted in an election on Sunday that could give a clear parliamentary majority to a centre-right party that has vowed to overhaul the economy and push for EU membership.
Progressive party leader Aleksandar Vucic casts his ballot at a polling station in Belgrade. Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP |
Serbs voted in an election on Sunday that could give a clear parliamentary majority to a centre-right party that has vowed to overhaul the economy and push for EU membership.
If the
ruling Progressive party wins the most seats in Serbia's 250-member parliament,
as polls predict, it is expected to choose their leader Aleksandar Vucic – a
former hard-line, pro-Russian nationalist who has become a pro-EU advocate – as
prime minister.
He has
pledged to fight vigorously against corruption and crime, and revive the
economy in the troubled Balkan nation of about seven million people.
Polls said
the Socialists, whose leader Ivica Dacic is the prime minister in the outgoing
coalition, would finish second.
Turnout was
about 41% three hours before the polling stations were to close Sunday,
slightly less than during the 2012 parliamentary election that brought the
Progressives, former allies of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, back
to power in Serbia.
The vote
comes as Serbia – a longtime international pariah for fomenting wars in the
Balkans in the 1990s – is officially seeking entry into the EU, amid deep
economic problems and simmering social discontent because of plunging living
standards.
Serbia
opened membership talks with the EU this year after signing a deal normalising
ties with Kosovo, a former province which seceded in 2008, but whose
independence Serbia's refuses to recognise.
Vucic says
he needs a strong mandate to carry out painful reforms needed to help Serbia's
economy, which has been ravaged by mismanagement, wars and international
sanctions.
"I
expect that after the election the fight for jobs and the fight against the
corruption will become basic issues that the new government will deal
with," Vucic said after casting his ballot Sunday.
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