BELGRADE – Hours before the dissolution of the National Assembly of Serbia, its Speaker Vladimir Orlić called snap elections in 65 cities and municipalities, including elections for the city assembly of the capital of Belgrade.
In addition to Belgrade, elections were called in some of the largest cities in Serbia, including Kragujevac, Leskovac, Kruševac, Kraljevo and Novi Pazar. They were not, however, called in Novi Sad and Niš, the second and the third largest city, as well as the northern Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
With the exception of Belgrade, in most of the other municipalities where the elections were called SNS is expected to perform strongly, based on the previous years’ results.
Regular elections for 153 local assemblies were expected to take place in June 2024, four years after the previous elections in 2020. However, in late September, mayors of municipalities across central Serbia from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) resigned en masse, paving the way for snap elections on 17 December, which will take place together with the early parliamentary election.
Early elections for 66 local assemblies (city municipality Vranjska Banja in Vranje is also included) imply that the remaining 87 cities and municipalities will hold regular elections in June.
Never since 1992 have so many early local elections taken place in Serbia. In each of the municipalities SNS had a stable majority, which was achieved, among other factors, due to the 2020 opposition boycott of elections on all levels.
The strategic motivation for dividing local elections into two phases has been discussed among political commentators since September, with the optimisation of the use of resources available to the ruling party and discouragement of opposition voters with strong results named as some of the explanations.
Vladimir Orlić signs the Decision on local elections
Photo: National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
