Serbs vote in combined presidential and parliamentary elections

dpa Budapest Serbs went to the polls on Sunday in combined presidential and parliamentary elections, as incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic seeks a second...

dpaBudapestSerbs went to the polls on Sunday in combined presidential and parliamentary elections, as incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic seeks a second consecutive term in office.Nationalist Vucic, who has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, is the clear favourite to win along with his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won its current parliamentary majority in 2020.Vucic had the parliamentary elections brought forward in order to secure the dominance of his party by combining it with the presidential ballot.Results are expected late on Sunday evening after polls close at 8pm (1800 GMT).Despite his stated aim to lead Serbia into the EU, Vucic has maintained good relations with Russia - even since its invasion of Ukraine.For the first time, ethnic Serbs resident in Kosovo are ineligible to vote in the Serbian election from Kosovo, instead having to travel to Serbia to cast their ballots, due to a lack of agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on how voting in Kosovo would work.Buses and cars monitored by Kosovo police carrying Kosovan Serbs to vote in Serbia made their journeys without incident, according to the Serbian-language Kosovo news website kossev.info.Western diplomats were also watching events at the border closely. Kosovan Serbs had until now been able to vote from Kosovo in elections administered by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).However, this time, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti demanded that the Belgrade government negotiate directly the government in Pristina. Serbia’s government, however, refused to do so, seeing the step as tantamount to recognition of Kosovan independence.