Published December 29,2023
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Hundreds of Serbian protesters, largely college students, gathered Friday in central Belgrade and blocked a key intersection within the capital to protest alleged electoral fraud.
It marked the primary deliberate day-long blockade because the December 17 parliamentary and native elections during which President Aleksandar Vucic’s social gathering stated it secured a commanding victory. Opposition teams have contested the outcomes.
The essential opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence alleged that ethnic-Serbian voters from neighbouring Bosnia had been allowed to forged ballots illegally within the capital.
International observers additionally reported irregularities whereas a number of Western nations voiced concern over the electoral course of.
The college students, organised throughout the Borba (“Fight”) motion, are calling for the election outcomes to be annulled and new votes held.
“In our country, literally for decades, no justice has been done regarding democratic processes,” Jovana Kostadinov, a 19-year-old pupil on the Belgrade University Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Biology, advised AFP.
“Now when I was finally entitled to vote, (my vote) was not respected and I feel hurt,” she stated.
“Who stole the elections?” activist Ivan Bijelic requested the protesting college students, who replied chanting, “Thieves, thieves!”
Students, joined by different children, erected tents and put sleeping luggage at an improvised camp whereas some sat on the intersection near authorities buildings.
“We will not allow you (Vucic) this,” learn one of many banners carried by the protesters.
“Euromaidan Serbia,” learn one other one in a reference to the pro-European Union protest wave in Ukraine in 2014.
On Friday night, the scholars have been joined by a number of hundred protesters who had gathered earlier in entrance of the state electoral fee.
Once the blockade ends at noon Saturday, the protesters plan to affix one other demonstration later within the day led by a gaggle of intellectuals, artists and celebrities who urged individuals to vote earlier than the elections.
Vucic’s right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) gained roughly 46 % of votes within the parliamentary elections, whereas the main opposition coalition secured 23.5 %, the official outcomes present.
Since the elections, protesters have erected sporadic roadblocks in Belgrade.
The protests culminated on Sunday night, when demonstrators tried to storm Belgrade metropolis corridor, with police pushing them again with pepper spray.
Demonstrators, greater than 30 of whom have been detained, used flagpoles, rocks and eggs to interrupt the home windows of the capital’s administrative constructing and tried to interrupt in.
Source: www.anews.com.tr