Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won a second term in office and his ruling party headed for an election victory on Sunday, putting the leader on track to extend his coalition’s decadelong grip on power, according to an early third-party count.
Vucic secured about 59% of the vote in the presidential contest, more than enough to avoid a second-round runoff ballot, according to a partial count taken by the nongovernmental Center for Free Elections and Democracy. His Progressive Party-led bloc won about 43% of the vote, while a coalition of center-left opposition parties running as United for Serbia’s Victory took 13%.
The result suggests Vucic will be able to consolidate his dominance since his party first took over the government a decade ago in the nation of 7 million. A largely fragmented opposition has struggled to challenge the Progressive-led coalition and assailed Vucic for increasingly concentrating power into his hands.
