Incumbent Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced his victory in the first round of presidential elections.
Vucic pointed out that he received around 60% of the total vote, about the same number of votes as was predicted by political experts.
"I got 59.9% - 60.1% ...I now won about 2,245,000 votes in the first round", Vucic told his supporters, adding that voting data from about 85 percent of polling stations in Serbia had been processed.
In addition, Vucic emphasised that he was "the first to win twice in the first round" in Serbia.
In his victory speech, the president also stressed that Serbia will continue to maintain friendly relations and its partnership with Russia.
"I can promise you that we will not be throwing out Dostoevsky in schools, or Tchaikovsky in opera. Serbia will try to maintain partnership and friendly relations with Russia", Vucic said, reiterating that Belgrade is neutral with regard to military alliances and that "this policy will continue".
He pointed out that although Serbia is on the European path and has good relations in the region, it "should not lose traditional friendly relations".
At the same time, speaking about the outcome of the parliamentary elections, he noted the great influence that the conflict in Ukraine had on them. According to the president, the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the election results was "enormous", as everything in politics shifted "sharply to the right".
Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party received fewer votes in this election, because it "did not flirt with the people", according to him. He pledged to take the populism of some of the contenders into account when forming a new government and parliamentary factions, as well as not include those who "irresponsibly abused the attitudes of our people, but in fact never gave anything to the country".
He added that the Serbian Progressive Party and their coalition partner, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, were getting enough votes to form a parliamentary majority.
More than 6.5 million Serbs were eligible to vote in Sunday's general election, which was held from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time.
Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus