Serbia Parliament Convenes After Boycott-tainted Election

Belgrade, Aug 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Aug, 2020 ) :Serbia's newly elected MPs gathered for their inaugural session Monday in a parliament dominated by the president's ruling party, who now face few formidable foes after an election tainted by an opposition boycott.

The 250 MPs, who wore masks and kept a distance in line with anti-virus measures, were sworn in to the assembly in Belgrade, officially beginning a 90-day period in which they must form a new government after the June 21 vote.

The conservative Serbian Progressive party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic, in power since 2012, holds a comfortable majority with 188 seats, some three quarters of the assembly.

Their traditional coalition partners, the Socialist Party (SPS), form the next largest bloc with 32 members.

And the only opposition party that ran in the election and passed the threshold to enter parliament, the new Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS) with 11 MPs, has expressed interest in joining a ruling majority.

There are also some 20 seats held by small ethnic minority parties, who have traditionally backed the ruling camp.

Serbia's main opposition players boycotted the vote altogether, decrying what they say is Vucic's increasingly autocratic rule over the EU candidate country.

Critics and rights groups accuse the president of trampling over Serbia's democracy by exercising an outsized influence over state institutions and the media.

Although Vucic was not running for parliament himself, the 50-year-old dominated the campaign and his name graced the ballot as the leader of the SNS party.

Citing years of democratic backsliding, the US-based monitor Freedom House said this year it now categorised the country as a "hybrid regime" instead of a democracy due to Vucic's strongman tactics.