According to projections, incumbent Aleksandar Vucic and his SNS party won the presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia, the candidate country for EU membership.
According to the election research institutes Ipsos and Cesid on Sunday evening, Vucic received 59.8 of the votes and would thus prevail in the first round of voting without a runoff.
According to the projections, his SNS party can count on 43.6 percent of the votes, putting it well ahead of the opposition alliance “United for Victory” with 12.9 percent and the Socialists, who have 11.6 percent.
The Ukraine war had overshadowed the election campaign in Serbia.
Previously dominant issues such as environmental protection and corruption faded into the background.
NGOs reported violent incidents on election day.
The opposition accused supporters of the SNS of trying to intimidate citizens at the polling stations.
Parliamentary candidate Pavle Grbovic said he was attacked by ruling party activists while trying to document election fraud in Belgrade.
Many Serbs are sympathetic to the Kremlin;
after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were even demonstrations in support of the Russian army in the country.
Apparently for fear of being punished by voters, the opposition has largely refrained from attacking Vucic because of his largely neutral position on the Ukraine war.