Serbia to hold snap elections on Dec. 17: President

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced Thursday that extraordinary parliamentary elections will be held on Dec. 17.

"There will be parliamentary, Belgrade and Vojvodina elections," Vucic told national commercial broadcaster Prva TV, adding he is fulfilling the opposition's wish.

Vucic said it is important that the elections are held so that people can have their say.

"The people must express themselves. The people are the bearers of sovereignty... It is up to the people to say what kind of politics they want, and I have no problem with that… If we can gain the trust of the citizens, that's fine. We can't let someone else rule," he added.

The elections must be announced by Nov. 2 by the assembly of Serbia in order to be held on Dec. 17.

The local elections will be held in about 60 municipalities.

New members of the 250-seat National Assembly as well as the 120-seat Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the municipal councils of cities and districts across the country will be determined.

The general election is held every four years in Serbia.

The last one was held in 2020, when the alliance led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) led by Vucic at the time came to power alone.

Hundreds of Serbians have been gathering in cities every Saturday for anti-government protests and demonstrations against the president and to denounce violence.

The gatherings began shortly after two mass shootings took place in less than 48 hours in May which left at least 17 dead.

At least eight people were killed and 14 wounded in the first shooting when the suspected shooter, Uros Blazic, 21, opened fire in the town of Mladenovac, 42 kilometers (26 miles) south of Belgrade.

In the second shooting, a teenage boy opened fire on a school in Belgrade, killing eight students and a security guard.

Most recently, tensions have risen since a Kosovo police officer and three local Serbian gunmen were killed in a clash on Sept. 24 in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska.

The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, followed by protests against the election of ethnic Albanian mayors.

Albanians are by far the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, followed by Serbs, with about half living in the north.

Amid the unrest concerning the elections, NATO peacekeepers were deployed, including a group of additional Turkish reinforcements.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and gained recognition from many countries, including Türkiye. But Belgrade has never recognized Kosovo and claims it is still part of Serbia.​​​​​​​