Serbia's ruling populists claim sweeping election victory

An early official vote count appears to confirm Serbia’s governing populists’ claims of a sweeping victory in the Sunday election, despite the complaints of the opposition.

The party of President Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), won some 47% of the ballots in the parliamentary vote, followed by Serbia Against Violence with 23%, according to a near-complete preliminary tally by the state election commission. If confirmed, this result would land the party around 130 seats in the 250-member assembly, giving SNS an absolute majority and the ability to form a government on its own.

The main contest in the parliamentary and local elections was between President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressives and a centrist coalition, who sought to undermine the populists ruling the troubled Balkan state since 2012.

The Serbia Against Violence opposition coalition was expected to mount its biggest challenge for the city council in Belgrade, with analysts saying an opposition victory in the capital would seriously dent Vucic’s hardline rule in the country.

Vucic, however, said his party was also leading in the vote in the capital, though he added post-election coalition negotiations would determine who governs in Belgrade.

“This is an absolute victory which makes me extremely happy,” a jubilant Vucic said at his party’s headquarters in Belgrade. “We know what we have achieved in the previous period and how tough a period lies ahead.”

The main opposition group disputed the election projections from the governing party, claiming there was vote-rigging and saying it would dispute the vote count “by all democratic means.”

While official results are yet to be announced in Belgrade, Serbia Against Violence, the country’s