Serbian presidential election 2017

[Deleted]

The 1st round of the Serbian presidential election will be on 2 April with a potential run-off on 16 April. The ruling SNS has decided to have the Parliament in recess for the entire duration of the presidential campaign, which is in blatant violation of parliamentary rules, but that doesn't seem to bother SNS.

PM Aleksandar Vučić is polling at around 52% with his various opponents at 40%+ combined.

Incumbent Tomislav Nikolić had declared his intention to stand despite losing the SNS nomination to Vučić, but withdrew his candidacy two days later, reportedly after being blackmailed with compromising material about members of his family. All very Balkan-ish. Presumably Vučić plans to install a puppet as PM after taking over the mostly ceremonial presidency.

[Deleted]

The five parties running candidates are:

Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), who are right wing populist Nationalists turned europhile and "moderate" party of power.
Dveri is a quasi-Fascist party running their founder/Führer. 
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) is NatCon party, which are usually allied with Dveri, they are running their party president (a former sprinter, so presumably running fast)
Serbian Radical Party (SRS), hardcore europhobic pro-Russian Nationalists - the party SNS split from. Right wing veteran and party leader Vojislav Sesjl is running.
Active Serbia is a new personalist party, which is allied with the Socialist Party of Serbia (ex-Commies). They are running their founder & chairman. 

The most notable of the Indies are:

Former Ombudsman and fierce corruption fighter Sasa Jankovic (who unfortunately has no chance). He is supported by the Democratic Party (DS), which is the old pro-Western Liberal party founded by intellectuals in the 90s and main opponents of Milosevic.

Former Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who is backed by the Social Democrats (SDS), a breakaway of the DS left wing.

The opposition has protested that a potential second round would take place on Orthodox Easter, where lots of people would be on holiday or celebrating, but its clear that the government doesn't expect there to be a 2nd round. 

[Foggy]

Mar 2, 2017 19:29:18 GMT @odo said:

Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) is NatCon party, which are usually allied with Dveri, they are running their party president (a former sprinter, so presumably running fast)

[Deleted]

Just to put things in perspective this isn't going to be a fair election. In fact observers deem it one of the lest fair electoral races in recent Serbian history.

- By permitting the shortest possible time for the election campaign (30 days) Vucic gives his rivals as little time as possible to collect the necessary signatures to get on the ballot and present themselves to voters.

- With most of the media under the regime's (firm or soft) control his team can prevent rivals from spreading their message and Vucic's spin doctors have a free hand defining the image of him and his opponents.

- Vucic will remain PM until after the election, allowing him to exploit state resources without limit.

- Parliament has been suspended during of the election campaign to prevent his rivals from using tv-coverage of its sessions to spread their message. 

[Deleted]

New Ipsos poll:

Aleksandar Vučić 53.0%
Luka Maksimović 11.0% (comedian running as joke candidate)
Saša Janković 10.6%
Vojislav Šešelj 8.6%
Vuk Jeremić 6.9%
Boško Obradović 3.5%
Saša Radulović 1.7%
Nenad Čanak 1.7%

[Georg Ebner]

A low TurnOut to the coronation of Mr.V is reported in some media.

[Georg Ebner]

96% counted:

55 Vucic
16 Jankovic
09 Maksimovic
06 Jeremic
04 Seselj