Serbia's Vucic consolidates dominance with presidency, party win

BELGRADE (BLOOMBERG) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won a second term in office and his ruling party headed for an election victory, putting him on track to extend his coalition's decade-long grip on power.

Mr Vucic secured about 59 per cent of the vote in the presidential contest, more than enough to avoid a second-round runoff ballot, according to a partial count taken by the non-governmental Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID).

Speaking to supporters late Sunday (April 3) in Belgrade, Mr Vucic echoed that number even as returns trickled in.

His Progressive Party-led bloc won about 43 per cent of the vote, while a coalition of centre-left opposition parties running as United for Serbia's Victory took 13 per cent, CeSID showed.

The result suggests Mr Vucic will be able to consolidate his dominance since his party first took over the government a decade ago in the nation 7 million.

A largely fragmented opposition has struggled to challenge the Progressive-led coalition and assailed Mr Vucic for increasingly concentrating power into his hands.

"We have more than enough to form a government," Mr Vucic told a crowd after the vote.

The Serbian leader is in position to form a robust majority in the country's 250-seat legislature with his Socialist allies, even though his bloc's parliamentary result fell short of pre-election polls showing that the Progressive-led bloc could win more than 50 per cent of ballots.

"Support for Vucic as a president is stronger than for his party," said Mr Bojan Klacar, CeSID's executive director.

Mr Vucic, 52, has struck a balanced position between Russia, a traditional Serbian ally, and the European Union, which has piled pressure on Belgrade to adopt its raft of sanctions targeting the Kremlin.

Although Serbia condemned Mr Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in a United Nations resolution, Mr Vucic has said it's not in the country's interest to join in with EU penalties.

"The most important thing for Serbia is to have good relations in the region and to continue on its European path, without ruining its ties with traditional friends," Mr Vucic said.

He also lamented the country's lurch to the right, saying danger looms if the shift continues.

The election campaign has been overshadowed by the war, though the opposition has failed to gain traction in a country with divided sympathies between Moscow and the European Union, which Serbia aspires to join.

A poll last month showed that half of Serbs want their country to remain neutral, though of those to chose a side, more expressed a preference for Russia.

The invasion of Ukraine has also deflected Mr Vucic's opponents focus on corruption allegations in Serbia and environmental issues that rose to prominence after a wave of protests last year against pollution.

The Progressives have replaced their initial campaign slogan highlighting economic achievements with "Peace. Security. Vucic."

Once a hardline nationalist in a party that called for a Greater Serbia during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Mr Vucic has moderated his views on his path to power. The president has stuck with Serbia's ambitions to join the EU and carried out economic reforms.

The Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability, a watchdog organisation for democratic standards, said its representatives had noted irregularities at as many as 12 per cent of polling stations in Serbia, citing a sampling, citing a sampling.