Photo: FoNet/Marko Dragoslavić
The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the way in which the elections were held in Serbia "unacceptable". There are still no congratulations from Europe for the Progressives
"Serbia voted, but the ODIHR mission reports abuse of public funds, voter intimidation and cases of vote buying," the German Ministry said on Twitter.
"That is unacceptable for a country with EU candidate status," it added.
On Monday, the ODIHR, the observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), presented harsh assessments of the past elections, stating that the voting was full of irregularities, pressures, mass insertion of ballots into boxes and the like.
ODIHR particularly resented the omnipresence of President Aleksandar Vučić in the campaign, although he did not even run for office. The media dominance of one man and one party undermines fair elections, the mission stated.
"The fact that there were 5.600 observers, including the full ODIHR mission, best shows that Serbia has problems with the elections," Zoran Gavrilović from the Bureau of Social Research told "Vreme".
"Those reports go into the report of the European Commission and affect all indices of Serbia, for example Freedom House." Therefore, they affect international evaluations and the EU's attitude towards Serbia," he added.
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Previously, the spokeswoman of the European Commission, Ana Pisonero, stated that the EU will not make a statement about the elections in Serbia until the ODIHR mission presents preliminary results.
Those familiar with the situation say that this observer report is the harshest so far, after an election day that was rife with irregularities.
The question now is whether the European Union or some of its members will openly reject the election results. In any case, congratulations for the Serbian Progressive Party have not yet arrived from Brussels.
NR / NW
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