Several thousand Serbian protesters gathered in central Belgrade on Saturday in the largest of a series of demonstrations against alleged election fraud.

It was the 17th consecutive protest since parliamentary and local elections on December <> in which President Aleksandar Vucic's party claimed a resounding victory. Since then, opposition groups have questioned the results.

The main opposition coalition "Serbia Against Violence", but also other groups and initiatives, denounced numerous electoral irregularities, including the fact that ethnic Serb voters from neighbouring Bosnia had been allowed to vote illegally in the capital.

International observers also reported different irregularities and several Western nations expressed concern about the electoral process.

Saturday's protests were a continuation of the first 24-hour street blockade in central Belgrade, mainly by organized student members of the Borba ("Struggle") movement, demanding the annulment of the results and the holding of new votes.

The demonstrators organized under the slogan "We don't agree" and repeated: "The elections must be repeated."

The organisers asked the European Union for facilities, as well as the establishment of an independent committee of inquiry into electoral irregularities, which seeks to establish fair conditions for the elections, before the new elections, which will be held in six months.

The crowd reacted in a major way when, with the help of her comrades, Serbian opposition leader Marinika Tepic, who went on hunger strike for 13 days, and has not eaten since December 18 to protest alleged electoral fraud, took the stage.

"The only thing I can tell you is that it's all said and done. These elections must be annulled," Tepic told the crowd.

At the end of her speech, the MP ended her hunger strike in the hospital.

The demonstration was spearheaded by the group ProGlas (a play on words meaning "proclamation" and "pro-vote"), an initiative started in November by local celebrities, intellectuals, artists and teachers.

President Vucic's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), in power since 2012, won about 17 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections on Dec. 46, while the main opposition coalition won 23.5 percent, according to official results.

Since the election, protesters have erected sporadic barricades in Belgrade.

  • Serbia