BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2022) Serbs will vote for a new president and parliament on Sunday, an election that the Interior Ministry fears may be hijacked by pro-Western opposition trying to force a split with Russia.
More than 6.5 million eligible voters will go to the polls at 7 a.m. (05:00 GMT). Municipal elections will simultaneously be held in dozens of cities, including the capital of Belgrade.
Voting will also be held at 77 overseas polling places, but a hundred thousand of ethnic Serbs living in breakaway Kosovo will not be able to cast ballots at home after the Kosovo authorities barred them from voting within the territory.
The National Electoral Commission has registered 19 political alliances and coalitions ahead of the snap elections to the 250-seat national legislature.
Sitting President Aleksandar Vucic is running for reelection as the candidate of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Together with several smaller parties, it forms a Together We Can Do Everything coalition, projected to grab the majority of votes.
A grouping of opposition parties called Alliance for Victory, led by Marinika Tepic of the left-green Party of Freedom and Justice, has been polling second at 13.7%.
Opposition parties have already claimed that the polling would be rigged in the governing party's favor, an allegation denied by the ruling Progressive Party.
Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin accused the opposition this week of preparing to challenge the results of the elections and seize power if they lose. The opposition has been unhappy with Vucic's refusal to take sides on the Ukraine conflict or back EU sanctions on Russia.
Russia is sending observers to the elections. They will be part of two observer pools formed by the former Soviet republics' Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Eurasian alliance.�
