Post-election farce in Serbia
Serbia has gone from a never less unpredictable election in terms of the winner to a veritable post-electoral farce, and the players - some possessing more arguments, some less - are all the parties.
Instead of an announcement of the final results and negotiations on forming a new cabinet, the electoral process appears to have gone back to where it was at 8 p.m. on Sunday, when polling stations closed. Judging by announcements from parties, what should have been finished Sunday night awaits again – the counting of the votes.
Who will recount first
The uncertainty of this year’s election wasn’t in who would win or whether the tally would bring into question which party would head up the cabinet. The uncertainty was whether the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) would win more than 50% of the ballot and which parties would hit the magic number five - the percentage of votes needed to cross the threshold into the parliament.
In a suspenseful election night, marked by dramatic turnabouts in preliminary result announcements, a topic already covered by Insajder.net, criticisms came in from opposition parties over the Republic Electoral Commission’s (RIK) silence.
SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic said in his first statement that SNS had surpassed the magic percentage of 50% of the ballot.
Contrary to the data provided by election observer organizations, all opposition parties claimed they were certain to have crossed the threshold. There was no information from RIK. RIK’s first announcement was after midnight, a delay the likes of which have not been seen in the last decade or more. This may be seen from information available on the RIK website:
ELECTION PROCESSED RESULTS FIRST ANNOUNCED POLLING STATIONS 2016 - Parlamentary 00:10 a.m. 41.69 % 2014 - Parlamentary 10 p.m. 18.89 % 2012 - Presidental 10 p.m. 51.51 % 2008 - Parlamentary 10 p.m. 6.97 % 2006 - Constitutional 10 p.m. 25.08 % 2004 - Presidental 9 p.m. 4.74 % 2003 - Parlamentary 10 p.m. 9.92 %
As the RIK announcement still left three parties uncertain as to whether they were over the threshold, the leaders of several opposition parties went to RIK during the night to check in on the counting.
The winning SNS is now announcing a recount too because, in the words of SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic, strange things happened at RIK that night.
Imagine if I barged into some commission and suddenly the results are different, it’s all like they wanted.
RIK did not complain of pressure at first and the opposition noted the cooperativeness of RIK representatives on election night, but RIK president Dejan Djurdjevic later said the opposition’s night visit was an unprecedented instance of pressure on RIK. Interestingly, he did not mention this pressure at the first news conference, held a day after the vote, but only at the second one, which took place after a session of the SNS Presidency, which, according to media reports, included Djurdjevic.
RIK: Here you go, count away
The message that arrived from the Republic Electoral Commission was: “Don’t expect us to count the ballots again!”
Deputy RIK president Miladin Kovacevic said any party was welcome to do a check, but that RIK could not review itself.
Those who want to can count the ballots themselves. They’re in boxes and bags, let them count.”
Meanwhile, first the opposition announced that it put together a legal team to check over the electoral material, and then SNS too said a party legal team would do a vote recount.
The final tally of votes in the extraordinary parliamentary elections was due no later than 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 28. However, the deadline is extended if there are complaints or repeat voting, already announced, at certain polling stations.