Progressives win 158 out of 250 parliament seats

SOURCE: TANJUG
BELGRADE -- The Serb Progressive Party (SNS)-led coalition has won 158 seats in the Serbian parliament, the Republic Election Commission (RIK) has announced.

 

The SPS-led coalition secured 44 seats, the Democratic Party (DS) - 19, and the New Democratic Party -18 seats, according to the data based on 99.08 percent of the polling stations or 99.44 percent of the electorate.

Three minority parties made it to the parliament - the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) with six seats, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of Sandžak with three seats, and the Party for Democratic Action-Riza Halimi with two seats.

In terms of percentage, this means that 48.34 percent of eligible voters or 1,727,444 citizens cast their ballot for the SNS.

13.51 percent or 482,710 of electors voted for the Socialists, 6.04 percent or 215,923 citizens for the DS and 5.71 percent or 203,916 citizens for the New Democratic Party.

When it comes to minority parties, 2.11 percent of the electorate or 75,248 citizens gave their vote to the SVM, and 0.95 percent of electors or 34,015 citizens voted for the SDA of Sandzak, and 0.68 percent of the electorate or 24,274 percent of the Party for Democratic Action led by Riza Halimi.

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) fell out of the parliament, having won just 4.24 percent of the vote, which means that 151,677 citizens voted for it. The Liberal Democratic Party also stayed below the threshold with 3.35 percent or 119,855 votes, the United Regions of Serbia (URS) with 3.04 percent and 108,693 votes.

The Dveri movement secured 3.57 percent of the electorate and got 127,753 votes. Two percent of citizens voted for the Serbian Radical Party, which means that the party got 71, 640 votes, while the slate titled "Enough of That" led by Sasa Radulovic got 2.08 percent or 74,445 votes.

Third Serbia got 0.46 percent of the vote or 16,364 votes, while the Russian Party and the Montenegrin Party got less than one percent - 0.18 percent each, the Patriotic Front - 0.13 percent, the List of National Communities-Emir Elfic- 0.11 percent and the Coalition of Citizens of All Nations and Nationalities - 0.09 percent of the vote.

The ballots from Kosovo and Metohija was transferred to Vranje and Raška and their processing is under way, said Director of the Serbian Statistical Office Dragan Vukmirović.

He told a news conference held at noon on Monday that certain changes to the number of seats are possible and that final election results will be released by 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, at the latest.

In the snap parliamentary elections in Serbia, the turnout stood at 53.12 percent, with the total of 6,728, 170 voters casting their ballot, while 3.17 percent of ballot papers were spoiled.

According to the RIK, there were 113,374 invalid ballot papers, another 1,941 papers were not cast into the ballot box, while 3,157, 223 ballot papers were not used.

The voting took place at 8,387 polling stations in the territory of central Serbia, and 90 polling stations in Kosovo and Metohija.

No major irregularities were registered.

As of March 20, the 30-day timeframe begins for constituting a new convocation of the Serbian parliament.

The new parliament should be sworn in by April 19 at the latest.