Fifth protest over voter fraud held in Belgrade, mass rally announced for Sunday

Following the first rally organized by the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition on December 18, a day after the Serbian elections, the students “took over” and announced that protests would be held on a daily basis. They asked the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government for a revision of the voter roll, and gave it until Monday, December 25, to reply, or they will start blocking roads in the capital.

Miroslav Aleksic of the Serbia Against Violence coalition announced a mass protest for 6 pm Sunday.

“Tomorrow we are waiting for the results that are due, the deadline to annul the elections is running out, it is a time when we all need to assemble. I invite all citizens, we will put up a stage, we will start defending the will of the people, the state, the freedom that was taken from us by those who have privatized our country. Maybe the RTS (Serbian state TV) will realize that it should inform the citizens who pay regularly every month,” said Aleksic.

Serbia Against Violence MPs Marinika Tepic and Miroslav Aleksic, and two other MPs, Jelena Milosevic from the city of Nis and Danijela Grujic from Novi Sad, are on a hunger strike inside the building housing the RIK.

Lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic, who visited the hunger strikers, said that “three women and Miroslav Aleksic are fighting for the Constitution and our country’s laws” to be implemented in Serbia.

Leader of the opposition Democratic Party Zoran Lutovac said they have demanded a repeat of elections.

“That demand can only be met if we motivate people to come out and support it. What is necessary is to create a social front. This is not about individual rights being violated, this is about systemic theft,” said Lutovac.

“The demands are made on behalf of the citizens, but they concern all of us, they should be the first step toward a change of society, so we can have free and fair elections,” he said, adding that “we would have never found ourselves in this situation had the institutions done their job.”

Together party co-president and University Professor Biljana Stojkovic said she was proud of her students because they showed that, in addition to exams and studying, social action is also very important.

“I am proud of my students, this is an excellent lesson that they taught their professors,” Stojkovic told the crowd, also commending them for extending their support to their peers in the Czech Republic following the armed attack on the University in Prague.

The Serbia Again Violence protest in the city of Nis, under the slogan ‘Nis is never silent on election fraud’ began just after 6 pm Friday.

This was the first protest in this city after the December 17 elections.

MP Srdjan Milivojevic shared with the protesters his message to those who are afraid to join them “because have a job.”

“How did we get here – putting up with being poor, not financially, but in the sense that we have no freedom and dignity,” said Milivojevic.

A protest was also held Friday in the town of Ljig, for the second time after the elections.