On the 2020 Serbian election: Why a boycott will only worsen things there
First of all, I apologise for the recent hiatus; however elections are still postponed or on hold in many countries, including the UK.
Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation.
Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian public sector have become more problematic, with employees often pressured to support President Vucic. This led to the largest opposition alliance, the Alliance for Serbia, to boycott the election altogether, which culminated in a sharp drop in turnout to just 50.32%, by some measure the lowest turnout in modern Serbian history.
The more progressive and socialist Socialist Party of Serbia-United Serbia coalition, which also included the Green Party of Serbia, did participate and in the absence of the Alliance for Serbia polled 10.37% of the vote and increased its seat total to 32, making it the new main opposition in the Serb National Assembly. It acquired a lot of votes from those determined to vote against President Vucic's coalition and who knew that boycotting elections almost never works. With the threshold for entry into the Assembly lowered from 5% to 3%, a move criticised by election observers, the populist Serbian Patriotic Alliance won 11 seats despite only polling 3.64%. The only other political parties to win seats in this Serbian election represented ethnic minority groups in Serbia: the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Straight Ahead (representing Macedonians in Serbia), the Albanian Democratic Alternative, and the Party for Democratic Action of Sandzak, representing Bosnians in Serbia. They won 10, 2, 2, and 2 seats respectively.
One surprise in the election was that the pro-monarchist For the Kingdom of Serbia party came fourth, only missing the new threshold by 0.32%, even though there is little support for the restoration of monarchies anywhere in Eastern Europe. The last King of Yugoslavia, Peter II, was forced to abdicate in 1945, and the majority of Serbs have no memory of his reign. Liberal parties other than the main opposition fared badly, with neither Enough is Enough nor the Movement for Free Citizens in Serbia managing to win any seats, which is also attributable to the excessive pro-Vucic bias of the current Serbian media. The Russian Party was the winner of the election wooden spoon in Serbia, although in all fairness there are only approximately 3,300 Russians living in Serbia according to recent census data.
The boycott exposed internationally how much democracy is under threat in Serbia, but for now President Vucic's rule will continue meaning Serbia is well on its way to having a regime similar to that of Hungary or Poland.
Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation.
Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian public sector have become more problematic, with employees often pressured to support President Vucic. This led to the largest opposition alliance, the Alliance for Serbia, to boycott the election altogether, which culminated in a sharp drop in turnout to just 50.32%, by some measure the lowest turnout in modern Serbian history.
The more progressive and socialist Socialist Party of Serbia-United Serbia coalition, which also included the Green Party of Serbia, did participate and in the absence of the Alliance for Serbia polled 10.37% of the vote and increased its seat total to 32, making it the new main opposition in the Serb National Assembly. It acquired a lot of votes from those determined to vote against President Vucic's coalition and who knew that boycotting elections almost never works. With the threshold for entry into the Assembly lowered from 5% to 3%, a move criticised by election observers, the populist Serbian Patriotic Alliance won 11 seats despite only polling 3.64%. The only other political parties to win seats in this Serbian election represented ethnic minority groups in Serbia: the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Straight Ahead (representing Macedonians in Serbia), the Albanian Democratic Alternative, and the Party for Democratic Action of Sandzak, representing Bosnians in Serbia. They won 10, 2, 2, and 2 seats respectively.
One surprise in the election was that the pro-monarchist For the Kingdom of Serbia party came fourth, only missing the new threshold by 0.32%, even though there is little support for the restoration of monarchies anywhere in Eastern Europe. The last King of Yugoslavia, Peter II, was forced to abdicate in 1945, and the majority of Serbs have no memory of his reign. Liberal parties other than the main opposition fared badly, with neither Enough is Enough nor the Movement for Free Citizens in Serbia managing to win any seats, which is also attributable to the excessive pro-Vucic bias of the current Serbian media. The Russian Party was the winner of the election wooden spoon in Serbia, although in all fairness there are only approximately 3,300 Russians living in Serbia according to recent census data.
The boycott exposed internationally how much democracy is under threat in Serbia, but for now President Vucic's rule will continue meaning Serbia is well on its way to having a regime similar to that of Hungary or Poland.
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