War of words after repeat vote in Sabac

Nova.rs/ Vesna Lalić

A war of words broke out following the repeat local election vote in the western Serbia city of Sabac with the opposition local authorities reporting serious irregularities at all 27 polling stations while the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) claimed victory soon after the polls closed.

The voting was repeated at those 27 polling stations in Sabac following reports of serious irregularities at the June 21 vote.

Mayor Nebojsa Zelenovic said he would call the election commission to annul the vote at all 27 polling stations which were ordered to repeat the local election ballot. He said that voters had been forced to vote in public, photograph their ballots and that at least two polling stations reported more ballots than voters.

Zelenovic said that one polling station chief had been intercepted by criminals who tried to take away the sealed ballot bag. He said that large numbers of criminals had been brought in from othe places to pressure voters. „There were a lot of irregularities,“ he said.

Earlier, senior SNS official Darko Glisic declared victory but claimed that the conditions for the vote were the worst ever.

Glisic, chairman of the party Executive Committee, said that he was in Sabac because he is in charge of organizing voter turnout across the country. He also claimed that SNS members of local polling station committees had been harrassed all day and were not allowed access to the ballots and even that some of them had been poisoned.

Glisic also made accusations against Zelenovic and MEP Tanja Fajon. About a third of the voters in Sabac were eligible to vote at the repeat elections.