Serbian parliamentary election, 2012
On May 6, 2012, the regular parliamentary elections in Serbia were held. Parallel to the elections for the National Assembly and the Parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the parliaments of many municipalities in Serbia was chosen. After the incumbent President Boris Tadić had declared his resignation on April 4, 2012, also the first round of the presidential election was held on this date.
The list we put Serbia in transition ( Pokrenimo Srbiju ) - Tomislav Nikolić won the parliamentary elections with 24.01 % and was the strongest force 73 seats in parliament, before the list choice for a better life - Boris Tadić ( 22.07 %), on the 67 seats are assigned. For the third strongest force the electoral alliance of Ivica Dacic under the leadership of the Socialist Party of Serbia with 14.54% of the votes, or 44 seats was. The jump in the Skupština also managed the Democratic Party of Serbia with 7 % (21 seats), the electoral alliance Preokret - Turning with 6.53% (20 seats) and the United Regions of Serbia under Mlađan Dinkić with 5.51% (16 seats). Another nine seats went to minority parties. The nationalist Serbian Radical Party was 4.61 % below the five percent hurdle and had to leave Parliament.
The Serbian judiciary has launched investigations of electoral fraud, after 3000 ballot to have been discovered in the village of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina in a dumpster. Furthermore, voices have been raised that there was substantial election rigging by the official election results had been falsified by several hundred to thousands of invalid ballots at many polling stations. Thus, the turnout was artificially increased by several percentage points, which led to the Serbian Radical Party and the Alliance Dveri Srpske slipped below the 5 percent mark. Based on these allegations occurred in several cities in Serbia, despite ban on rallies and mass protests.
Starting position
The last parliamentary election of 2008 took place in a heated atmosphere and was a referendum on the question of a possible candidacy to the European Union the same. The then government coalition collapsed after Kosovo declared independence on the question whether Serbia should the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA ) signed with the EU. While the national-conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica (DSS ), however, argued that followed President Boris Tadic and his Democratic Party (DS ), a pro-European course.
The electoral alliance to the Democratic Party (DS ) emerged as the strongest force in the elections. The ultra - nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS ) was the second strongest force while Kostunica far behind again took third place. However, the new government could only be successfully designed, because it managed Tadić, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS ), the former party of Slobodan Milošević to move to a coalition with his Democrats. The Alliance for DS and SPS, reinforced by the liberal G17 Plus and some regional and minority parties, could well be described as historic, formed a coalition with the Democrats and socialists but two forces faced each hostile under the Milošević regime.
Contrary to many expectations, equipped with only a razor-thin majority coalition has been under Tadić's Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, the whole legislature without major crises. Thus, it is the first government since 2001, ruled the full four years.
Among the successes of the coalition, the civilization and rationalization of Serbian politics are counted. After the main opposition party SRS split shortly after the election, and succeeded her split wing under the name of Serbian Progressive Party (SNS ) to draw the majority of their voters to his side, the extreme - nationalist camp is marginalized. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the SNS, represents a declared pro-European course. The old division into Nationalists and European- oriented is thus given way to a predominantly pro-European consensus, which is second only to the residual radicals ( SRS ) and the increasingly drifting to the right Kostunica (DSS ) questioned. However, both Eurosceptic parties came in polls not beyond 15%.
In European politics, Serbia moved with long strides toward the European Union. After the signing of the SAA, the official membership application, lifting the visa requirement and last amended by Commission followed a very positive progress report with a clear recommendation for candidate status. The fact that this has been denied on the summit of the European Council in December 2011 for the time being, was related mainly to the Kosovo problem, which was virulent at the latest violent clashes at the border crossing of Kosovo to Serbia since the summer of 2011.
In the Kosovo issue, the coalition pursued under the leadership of DS a policy of two objectives: Kosovo and the EU. While Kostunica noted, Serbia can not simultaneously maintained in the EU and the claim on Kosovo, wanted the current government coalition combine both. Ever since the visit of Chancellor Merkel in August 2011, these twin objectives turned out to be illusory. Only through concessions Belgrade in the issue of representation of Kosovo in international conferences Serbia was the beginning of March 2012 granted the status of candidate country of the European Union. This step is also seen as EU support for the pro-European forces in the upcoming elections.
Just proceed as the Kosovo question, designed the economic policies of the government. Originally started with the promise to improve the living conditions of the population felt, the government was confronted with the effects of the world economic and financial crisis. The official unemployment rate has risen from 15% ( 2009) to 23% (November 2011). 1.7 million employed workers are faced with 0.7 million unemployed and 1.4 million pensioners. Even just an economic growth of 0.5 % is expected for 2012. In January 2012, the Government of the steel plant in Smederevo from the U.S. company U.S. Steel also had to buy back, which still accounted for 10 % of total exports in 2010.
Voters
The number of voters was reported by the Electoral Commission on 22 April with 7,026,579 citizens.