Projections point to victory for Serbia's populist president

euronews.com:

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his populist right-wing party appeared headed to victory in Sunday's national election, extending a decade-long authoritarian rule in the Balkan country, according to early pollsters’ projections.

The IPSOS and CESID pollsters, which have proven reliable in previous Serbian ballots, predicted Vučić would end up with nearly 60% of the votes. If confirmed in the official tally, Vučić would win outright a second five-year term as president and a runoff vote would not be needed.

Vučić later declared victory in both the presidential and parliamentary vote, saying he was proud to win the second outright mandate without going into a runoff.

“I huge thank you to the citizens of Serbia," he said, quoting similar results. “I'm endlessly proud and endlessly happy.”

The pollsters projected that Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party would win the most votes in the parliamentary ballot, with around 43%, followed by the United for Victory of Serbia opposition group with around 13%.

Serbia’s state election authorities said they would not make any official announcements on the vote count before Monday. The unprecedented move by the commission was branded as scandalous by opposition officials who said that it allowed Vučić to take over the state institution by giving him priority in announcing the official results.

Opposition claims of widespread irregularities marked the election Sunday. The governing populists have denied vote manipulation and pressure on voters.

Some 6.5 million voters were eligible to choose the president and a new parliament, and elections were being held as well for local authorities in the capital, Belgrade, and in over a dozen other towns and municipalities. Turnout was reported about