Local elections were held in Serbia this Sunday in 10 cities and municipalities across the country. However, according to local media reports, the process was marred by chaos, violence and allegations of irregularities.
“Parallel lists, sticks, fights, bloody heads… all of this was seen during the day in Bor, Bajina Bašta, Kula…” – writes the Serbian portal N1.
In the center of Bajina Bašta, in a parking lot, the tires of 6 cars belonging to various observation missions were punctured overnight. However, this was only the beginning of the scenes of real violence on the streets.
During election day, people dressed in black were seen assaulting people in the streets. One video shows a man getting out of a car holding a gun. A journalist from the website Zoomer was attacked when he tried to film a group of young men in black T-shirts and hoodies.
“As I was leaving, a fat young man in black approached me and tried to grab my phone. When I resisted, because I didn’t want to let him take my phone, he hit me several times in the head,” said journalist Darko Gligorijevi?.
Police did not provide details about who the gunman was. Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabi? came to the defense of the people in black, writing: “This is an attempt to protect democracy from blockers.”
Democracy appears to have been “defended” with fists and sticks in the town of Bor. A brawl broke out in front of the headquarters of Aleksandar Vu?i?’s Serbian Progressive Party and was broadcast live on TV Nova.
“There is a fight going on right now,” says a TV Nova journalist during the broadcast. “I saw the perpetrators coming out of the PIO fund. That is their base. They gather there all day. They attacked three guys who support the student list. They broke their heads and everyone went back to the PIO fund,” said a witness. Among the injured was also an observer.
“I will break every bone in your body, you bastard, and you too,” someone is heard saying in the video. Among the injured was journalist Lazar Dini?, who was taken to hospital with head injuries.
Another group of people, again in the city of Bor, followed students because they were filming a car in which, according to them, parallel voter lists were kept. In the released footage, the group of people first beat a female student and then knocked a male student to the ground and kicked him while he was lying down.
It wasn’t easy for those who volunteered for the students either. Two girls claim to have discovered the so-called “Bulgarian train” in the hall of the bus station in Arandjelovac.
“They brought blank ballots, placed them at the counters, and then left with the completed ballots at the voting center, which is located right next door,” says a volunteer.
” I was near a parking lot near the bus station and became suspicious when I noticed a jeep with dark windows moving, constantly coming and going. When I headed towards the parking lot, I noticed that there were people in three cars of different brands. When I turned the camera to film the jeep, at that moment a man got out of the back seat and started following me. We managed to film another Skoda next to them, which has Arangjelovci license plates, but also a license plate that says Belgrade,” said the volunteer.
The opposition claims that votes are being exchanged at the bus station in Knja?evac. Journalists and observers have also identified several bars as places where Vu?i?’s progressives are organizing. Due to information that they have a parallel list of voters in a hotel, our journalist entered the SNS call center.
“Are you an observation mission or what? Are these parallel voter lists,” asked N1 journalist Mladen Savatovi?.
Due to allegations by election observers that there were parallel voter lists in the town of Kula, the police responded by checking a vehicle. Tensions in the town rose on election day. It all started with a group of people clearly marked as belonging to the same party.
It quickly became clear that those who did not have this sign clearly displayed were much more dangerous. With long metal rods, a group of masked people came out from the direction of the stadium and clashed with the citizens of Kula. Judging by the footage, at least one person was injured in the fight.