DSS-Dveri coalition one vote short of five-percent threshold

DSS-Dveri coalition one vote short of five-percent threshold

But the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)-Dveri Movement coalition is now below it, with 4.99 percent, it was announced on Friday.

The latest official information coming from the commission shows the DSS-Dveri received 188,534 votes - in other words, one vote short of five percent of the total number of ballots cast on April 24.

National Statistical Office Director Miladin Kovacevic said that the Serb Progressive Party (SNS)-led list secured 48.24 percent of the vote, followed by the SPS-JS coalition (10.96 percent), the Serb Radical Party (SRS) (8.11 percent), the Democratic Party (DS)-led list (6.03 percent).

As this was being read out, Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic asked RIK President Dejan Djurdjevic whether he felt any shame, and dared to read the results and "go before the people," to which Djurdjevic replied by saying Obradovic "should not exert pressure."

Video footage taken in front of the room and published on Dveri's Facebook account shows there was some an altercation as Djurdjevic and Kovacevic were leaving. Dveri representatives waited for commission's officials, shouting that they should be ashamed for "stealing the votes of the people." Djurdjevic later said this was "the culmination of the pressure suffered by RIK" in recent days, and physically aggressive behavior against one of his colleagues was reported to the police.

He also said that Dveri's behavior was "impermissible" and that it came "despite the high probability" that the party and its coalition parter, the DSS, could still cross the threshold after voting is repeated in some polling stations.

Earlier, during another long day for the commission and a 5-hour meeting, decisions were made on the 99 polling stations where "serious errors" occurred during the April 24 voting.

The commission decided to annul the results from ten such stations, and verify others.