Vucic announces referendum results before election commission

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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held a news conference in his party’s headquarters on Sunday night to announce the results of the referendum before the Republic Election Commission (RIK).

According to the president, preliminary results showed that 60.4 percent of the vote was in favor of adopting the amendments to the constitution. He said that 39.52 percent of the voters who turned out for the referendum said no to the amendments.

He said that a majority of the vote in Belgrade was against the amendments and added that a significant number of members of his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) voted no.

Polling stations opened at 7 am and closed at 8 pm on Sunday. A total of 6,510,323 people had the right to vote for or against the adopting of the constitutional amendments. Under Serbian law there is no minimum number of voters who have to turn out for the referendum to be valid.

Vucic’s example was followed by Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic who spoke from the headquarters of his Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) to say that he was exceptionally pleased with the turnout.

He said that the current regime was the first to take power away from the authorities because the amendments take away parliament’s power to appoint judges and prosecutors. He said the amendments will help speed up Serbia’s integration into the European Union.

Dacic said that more than 16,000 opposition party members and activists were included in the voter commissions at polling stations.