Daily: Vucic to respond to opposition call for talks on new vote in Belgrade

Aleksandar Vucic, the leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and the head of state, will respond to a call for talks by Dragan Djilas, an opposition leader, about the possibility to repeat of the elections for the Belgrade City Assembly at hundreds of polling stations, the Danas daily has said on Thursday.

Vucic’s cabinet told the daily the President would answer the call on Thursday night during his address at the state RTS TV, the first after Sunday’s vote in which he overwhelmingly won the second consecutive term, but his party did not win a majority in the Parliament and was neck-to-neck with the opposition in Belgrade.

After Djilas' call to Vucic, Aleksandar Jovanovic of the Ecological Movement and the member of the opposition 'We Must' (Moramo) coalition told the Nova daily that there would not be any negotiations or agreements about people's votes with either the President or anyone else.

On the other hand, the head of the right-wing Democratic Party of Serbia and one of the leaders of the ‘HOPE’ (NADA) coalition said it would be a responsible move by Vucic to accept Djilas’ call for talks, because “all relevant political players should try to calm down the passionate atmosphere and polrisation in the society after the Sunday elections.

Radomir Lazovic of the 'We Must' opposition coalition said later on Thursday that "no agreements between the two people will help us, nor are they in charge, nor should they ask themselves independently about what should happen in Serbia. Two people should not decide on matters that are far beyond their competence."

Djilas, the leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SPP), and one of the main opposition politicians said on Wednesday the Belgraders voted for the change of power in the capital, adding his ‘United for Belgrade’s Victory’ coalition filed objections to the results at 258 polling stations, where, he believed, the vote should be repeated.

“I am prepared to talk to Aleksandar Vucic to ease tensions. He is President of all citizens and should take care of things like this,” he said, adding that the vote at those polling stations should be repeated or early elections should be called in six months.

Djilas said that he would defend every vote with all election means and did not rule out the possibility of protecting the will of the citizens in the street. Another option, as he said, was to repeat the total vote in Belgrade by the end of the year.