Serbian President Vucic claims absolute majority at snap polls

BELGRADE: Serbian President Alexander Vucic announced that the coalition around the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won over 127 out of 250 seats at the snap parliamentary elections.

"This is an absolute victory that makes me very happy," Vucic said on Sunday night, noting that the coalition around SNS also won the elections in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.

Vucic said that Serbia will stay on the path to European Union (EU) accession while defending its territorial integrity in its southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to unofficial results of the independent election monitoring organisation CESID, based on 80.2 per cent of their sample, the coalition around SNS "Serbia Must Not Stop" won 46.4 per cent of votes.

The second-ranked is the pro-European opposition coalition "Serbia Against Violence" which won 23.3 per cent.

The SNS has been in power since 2012 but there have been three elections in the past three years.

As well as voting for parliament, Serbians were deciding on Sunday who would control 65 local authorities.

Turnout nationally was estimated at 59.1 per cent.

Serbia is a candidate to become a member of the EU, and President Vucic is under pressure from both the bloc and the US to normalise relations with Kosovo.

Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia in 2008, and while it is recognised by more than 100 UN members, Serbia has refused to do so - backed by allies like Russia, China and five EU members.

Some 95,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo and those who wanted to vote had to cross into Serbia to cast their ballot.