By RIA Novosti,
Belgrade : Serbia’s election commission announced early on Wednesday the final results of the country’s May 11 parliamentary elections.
The official results were expected to be announced by May 15, but were held up until a re-vote could take place at three polling stations following breaches in voting procedures.
Serbia’s pro-Western Democrat Party won 102 seats (38.4%) in the 250-seat parliament, with Tomislav Nikolic’s Radical Party garnering 78 seats (29.45%). The results mean that Tadic’s party failed to win an outright majority required to push through his pro-Western policies and move closer to EU membership.
Nikolic’s nationalist party is expected to join forces with outgoing prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party with 30 seats (11.61%), which will leave both pro-Western Tadic and Nikolic chasing coalitions with the Socialists and Liberals to try and get the necessary 126 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
A coalition including the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia and United Serbia took 20 seats (7.58% of the vote), and the Liberal Democratic Party won 13 seats (5.24%).
The turnout was 61.35%, or 4.1 million voters.