2017 Serbian presidential election

2017 Serbian presidential election
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Candidate Aleksandar Vučić Saša Janković
Party SNS Independent
Alliance Serbia is Winning For Serbia Without Fear
Popular vote 2,012,788 597,728
Percentage 56.01% 16.63%
 
Candidate Luka Maksimović Vuk Jeremić
Party Independent Independent
Alliance Beli – Just Strong We Have to Do Better
Popular vote 344,498 206,676
Percentage 9.59% 5.75%
Election results by each municipality of Serbia:
  Vučić   Janković   Stamatović   Election not held
President before election

Tomislav Nikolić
Independent

Elected President

Aleksandar Vučić
SNS

Presidential elections were held in Serbia on 2 April 2017.[1] Incumbent president Tomislav Nikolić was eligible to run for a second five-year term, but opted not to do so. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was elected president in the first round.

The election was marred by accusations of voter intimidation and a near total domination of the Serbian media by Vučić and his party. Following the announcement of the results, protests were held across Serbia against Vučić's victory. The OSCE have announced that there are reports of pressure on employees of state and state-affiliated institutions to support Vučić and secure, in a cascade fashion, support from subordinate employees, family members, and friends.

The OSCE report noted that general reluctance of media to report critically on or to challenge the governing authorities significantly reduced the amount of impartial information available to voters,[2] that all private national television channels displayed preferential treatment towards Vučić in their news programmes, and that public resources were used in support of Vučić, including endorsements and favourable articles in municipal information material.[2] The European Commission stated in its Serbia 2018 report that the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media had failed to address imbalances in media coverage during the presidential campaign.[3] The Associated Press and Reporters Without Borders reported that Aleksandar Vučić, the candidate of the governing coalition, had ten times more airtime on national broadcasters than all other candidates combined and that mainstream media under Vučić's control have been demonizing most of the opposition presidential candidates, without giving them the opportunity to respond.[4][5] This practice was different compared to the previous elections, when the two main candidates had approximately the same media coverage.[6] Non-governmental organizations involved in election observation, CRTA and Bureau for Social Research, emphasized that the presence of Aleksandar Vučić in newspaper and the electronic media during presidential campaign was disproportionate, adding that media have lost their critical role and that they have become a means of political propaganda.[7][8]

  1. ^ Serbia to hold presidential elections on April 2 B92, 28 February 2017
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference OSCE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Serbia 2018 Report" (PDF). European Commission. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference AP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Media Ownership Monitor Serbia". Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  6. ^ "Parliamentary and early presidential election 2012, OSCE/ODIHR Election Assessment Mission Final Report". Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  7. ^ CRTA observation mission Final report Presidential elections 2017 (PDF). CRTA. 2017. p. 24.
  8. ^ Gavrilović, Zoran; Mijatović, Marina; Pavlica, Dražen (2017). Mediji, izbori i javnost 2017 (PDF). Bureau for Social Research.