Serbian PM the favourite to become president
BELGRADE: Serbians voted for a new president on Sunday with conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic the runaway favourite despite opposition warnings about the extent of his domination over the Balkan country, balanced between the West and Russia.
Most polls see Vucic, 47, winning in the first round with more than 50 per cent of the vote, trailed in the low teens by a former rights advocate and a white-suited student whose satirical portrayal of a sleazy political fraudster has struck a chord with some disillusioned voters. The role of president is largely ceremonial, but Vucic is expected to retain real power through his control of Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party.
As such, the election is unlikely to alter the country’s delicate balancing act between the European Union, which Vucic wants Serbia to join, and Russia, with which Serbs share their Orthodox Christian faith and Slavic heritage.
During the campaign, the studio backdrop of one popular television talkshow on which Vucic was a guest featured a photograph of him flanked by pictures of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
To his supporters, Vucic is a cool head and a firm hand in a troubled region.
“There were no real proposals or ideas in the programmes of the other candidates, so I voted for the only one who actually produced something and that was Vucic,” said 28-year-old Nebojsa Tomic, an unemployed pharmacist, shortly after polls opened.