Serbian election exit polls indicate win for pro-EU party

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/serbia-election-polls-win-pro-eu-party

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Serbs voted in an election on Sunday that could give a clear parliamentary majority to a centre-right party that has vowed to overhaul the economy and push for EU membership.

If the ruling Progressive party wins the most seats in Serbia's 250-member parliament, as polls predict, it is expected to choose their leader Aleksandar Vucic – a former hard-line, pro-Russian nationalist who has become a pro-EU advocate – as prime minister.

He has pledged to fight vigorously against corruption and crime, and revive the economy in the troubled Balkan nation of about seven million people.

Polls said the Socialists, whose leader Ivica Dacic is the prime minister in the outgoing coalition, would finish second.

Turnout was about 41% three hours before the polling stations were to close Sunday, slightly less than during the 2012 parliamentary election that brought the Progressives, former allies of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, back to power in Serbia.

The vote comes as Serbia – a longtime international pariah for fomenting wars in the Balkans in the 1990s – is officially seeking entry into the EU, amid deep economic problems and simmering social discontent because of plunging living standards.

Serbia opened membership talks with the EU this year after signing a deal normalising ties with Kosovo, a former province which seceded in 2008, but whose independence Serbia's refuses to recognise.

Vucic says he needs a strong mandate to carry out painful reforms needed to help Serbia's economy, which has been ravaged by mismanagement, wars and international sanctions.

"I expect that after the election the fight for jobs and the fight against the corruption will become basic issues that the new government will deal with," Vucic said after casting his ballot Sunday.