Local elections were held in ten municipalities in Serbia on Sunday. Parallel lists, sticks, beatings, bloody heads – all of this was recorded during the day in Bor, Bajina Bashta and Kula, "N1" reported.
In addition to these cities – voting also took place in Knjaževac, Sevojno, Kladovo, Smederevska Palanka, Arangjeelovac, Lučani and Majdanpek. All places recorded a very high turnout, in some even around 60 percent. Voting centers were open until 20:00 p.m.
If the election day is known from the morning, it was only a matter of time before the punctured tires would move on to bloody heads. In the center of Bajina Bashta, in a well-lit parking lot, the tires of six cars belonging to various observation missions were punctured during the night. However, this was only an introduction to scenes of real violence on the streets.
Before the car was destroyed by people with sticks in Bajina Bashta, two other attacks had occurred in the same place earlier. In one of them, in a video showing a man getting out of a car with a pistol in his hand, a journalist from the “Zoomer” portal was also attacked when he tried to film a group of young men in black hoodies.
"When I started filming, a fat guy dressed in black approached me and tried to take my phone. When I objected, because I didn't want to give it to him, he punched me in the head several times," said Zoomer portal journalist Darko Gligorijevic.
The identity of the person with the gun has not been revealed by the police, but the identity of the young men who were beating citizens, observers and journalists was quickly revealed by the Speaker of the Parliament. Sharing the video, Ana Brnabić wrote: "This is an attempt to protect democracy from blockers."
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Election materials were distributed across municipalities, under strict security measures.
With fists and sticks, democracy was "defended" in Bor as well. One of the clashes took place in front of the headquarters of the Serbian Progressive Party, even live on TV Nova.
Among the injured was an observer from the non-governmental organization CRTA.
"This is a situation where even a police officer threatened with a gun to calm tensions, while the attackers said 'we don't care' and attacked the citizens and our observer," said Rasha Nedeljkov from CRTA.
Those “ordinary guys” were actually students, members of the mobile team. In a video published by “The Student Blocked”, MP Mila Popovic claims to have identified several local officials.
"I will break every bone in your body, including you," he is heard saying in the video.
The violence went further – students claim that near a polling station in Bor, a group of people attacked them with axes from an Audi with Pancevo license plates. Among the injured is journalist Lazar Dinić, who was taken to hospital with head injuries.
Another group in the same city followed students after they were filming a car suspected of being used for parallel voter lists. In a CRTA video, one student is seen being hit first, while another student is knocked to the ground and beaten.
It wasn't easy for the volunteers either. Two girls in Arandjelovac claim they discovered the so-called "Bulgarian train" at the bus station.
"Blank ballots were brought in, filled out, and then taken to the polling station," one of them said.
Another volunteer said she was followed by a masked person after she attempted to film suspicious cars in the parking lot.
Even in Knjaževac, according to the opposition, votes were being traded at the bus station. Gastronomic establishments have been identified as venues. In Kladovo, there were suspicions of parallel lists.
In Kula, police searched a vehicle on the same suspicions, as tensions rose throughout the day. A group of people with metal bars clashed with citizens, and at least one person was injured.
In other countries, there were smaller irregularities.
Serbian List votes in a group again
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, in an address to the media on Sunday evening, spoke of "salvation from a great evil."
"Some people took out their weapons, mistreated people. They violently entered the centers. But, I think that revolutionary thoughts cloud people's brains, so they cannot distinguish between what is good and what is bad," Vucic said, B92 reports.
Vučić has declared victory in most municipalities.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a non-governmental organization that supports investigative journalism, reported on Saturday how Aleksandar Vučić's ruling party, the SNS, has turned small municipal races into heavily funded national battlegrounds and that "far-right American 'ghost' monitors have been deployed."
A series of incidents in local elections in Serbia
Local elections were held in ten municipalities and cities in Serbia on Sunday. Voting centers opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 20:00 p.m. "Danas" newspaper reports of high tensions and numerous incidents on election day.
The most incidents were reported in Kula. It is reported that dozens of masked people arrived near a polling station. The police quickly appeared there, but a number of citizens also gathered. It was reported that the masked people attacked several students.
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Balanced power at the local level, all parties declare victory
There are reports of high turnout in these local elections.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a non-governmental organization that supports investigative journalism, reported on Saturday how Aleksandar Vučić's ruling party, the SNS, has turned small municipal races into heavily funded national battlegrounds and that "far-right American 'ghost' monitors have been deployed."
