BELGRADE (Sputnik) – Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic declared the victory of the ruling coalition in the early parliamentary elections on Sunday, largely seen as a referendum on EU integration.
"I am very proud and deeply touched by our results. Serbians have again done us a great honor of [choosing us] to govern the country," Vucic said.
The prime minister estimates that the coalition of his Progressive Party and President Ivica Dacic’s Socialist Party of Serbia gained 50.9 percent of the votes based on 77 percent of returns, which Vucic said was "the best result in 20 years."
Just hours before Vucic’s announcement, the social-liberal Democratic Party accused the Progressive Party of vote rigging, including the so-called carousel voting which is driving voters around to cast ballots multiple times.
A spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, a former ruling party that joined opposition after losing elections in 2012, cited witnesses who claimed they had seen people in front of polling stations offering money for voting for a certain party.
Preliminary official estimates show that Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party has won the election.
With over 27 percent of ballots counted, the Progressive Party appears to have gained 49.3 percent of votes.
The first official data was released more than 4 hours after polling stations closed across Serbia. Pollsters’ projections put the ruling conservative party in the lead with 50 percent of votes.
Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic’s Socialist Party came second with 12.10 percent of votes, while the Democratic Party secured 6.13 percent of votes. The far-right Radical Party cleared the threshold with 7.94 percent.
