SNS

Several thousand supporters of Serbian opposition parties staged a protest on Saturday in Belgrade, claiming that last Sunday's elections were rigged and urging citizens to vote in repeat elections at 15 polling stations scheduled for Wednesday.

On Saturday's protest, several Serbian opposition parties across the political spectrum said that election were rigged and called citizens to vote freely on repeated elections on 15 polling stations scheduled for Wednesday, which can decide whether some parties will enter the parliament or not.

Serbian opposition groups alleged electoral fraud at weekend polls after the latest results showed a far-right DSS-Dveri coalition has been excluded from parliament.

The leaders of the coalition, supported by other three opposition parties, called a protest for Saturday to be held in front of the Electoral Commission in Belgrade.

The right-wing Dveri-DSS coalition has accused Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, of pressuring the Election Commission, RIK, to declare that the coalition did not meet the threshold needed to enter parliament - and has warned of street protests.

Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, has taken took control of the traditional bastion of the opposition Democratic Party, the northern Province of Vojvodina, as well as most municipalities and major cities.

Bojan Klacar, director of the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, CESID, told BIRN that the SNS was only a "relative winner" in last Sunday's elections.

The international election observation mission led by the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, on Monday declared that the elections in Serbia were generally conducted in accordance with the law, but admitted problematic issues at polling stations.

The victory of the governing Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Sunday's elections in Serbia - which was widely expected - has created little stir in the region.

Serbia needs cooperation with NATO, and only those who wish to return the country to the 17th century think this is unnecessary, says Aleksandar Vucic.

Answering reporters' questions after his party, the SNS, reached a coalition agreement with the PUPS, the prime minister said: "You who brought these agreements, don't lecture!."

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is also the president of the Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, will consult the party at the meeting on Sunday about the possibility of holding parliamentary elections in 2016, two years early.

Aleksandar Vucic will on Sunday ask his party, the SNS, to allow him to decide on whether to call early parliamentary elections before the SNS Assembly meets.

According to a statement issued by the party on Wednesday, the prime minister and SNS leader has scheduled a meeting of the main board of the SNS for January 17, when "the current political situation" will be discussed.