Voting in one of the previous Serbian elections. Photo: Andrej Cukic/EPA

More than 1.6 million citizens with the right to vote in Belgrade will decide in elections on Sunday who will hold power in Serbia’s capital.

The nationally ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, has held power in the capital since April 2014, when the current Mayor, Sinisa Mali, was elected.

Polling stations open from 7am to 8pm CET (GMT+1), and the preliminary results are expected later on Sunday evening

The 1.6 million potential voters will choose between 24 electoral lists and cast ballots at 1,185 polling stations.

Belgrade City Assembly members serve four-year terms elected on a closed party list proportional representation system.

Voters select from the party or coalition lists of candidates, circling their preferred list on the ballot. They cannot select individual candidates.

Parties and coalitions rank candidates in order of preference on lists, so the higher up the list a candidate is, the greater their chance of winning a seat. One in three candidates must come from the under-represented sex.

Party and coalition lists must win at least 5 per cent of the vote to take any of the assembly’s 110 seats.

The city mayor is chosen by the elected assembly members. While many parties/coalitions name their chosen mayoral candidate before the election, they are not required to do so.

Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party chose not to name a mayoral candidate ahead of the elections, but its list includes incumbent Mayor Mali.

Those running for the post include the city’s former mayor Dragan Djilas, the Democratic Party leader Dragan Sutanovac, New Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic, the Socialist Party’s Aleksandar Antic, Democratic Party of Serbia leader Milos Jovanovic, Miljan Damjanovic from the Serbian Radical Party, and the spoof politician Ljubisa Preletacevic “Beli”.

Read more:

Belgrade Election: Who’s Who So Far



Belgrade Voters Urged to Report Election Irregularities

Race Starts to Become Serbian Capital’s Next Mayor