BELGRADE -- Several thousand people gathered for a seventh night in central Belgrade to protest what the opposition and many Western observers called fraud in the country’s December 17 parliamentary and local elections, with some demonstrators attempting to enter the capital’s assembly building late in the evening.
The December 24 protest was called by the pro-Europe Serbia Against Violence coalition, which rejected the outcome of the elections following victory claims by President Aleksandar Vucic's ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
"The whole world has seen the theft that has not been recorded. In Belgrade, we won. Belgrade is a free city," opposition politician Srdjan Milivojevic of the Democratic Party said at the rally.
Police officers were reportedly inside the assembly building, poised to fend off protesters attempting to gain entry into the site, where windows had been broken. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators.
Protesters carried banners and flags of Serbia and the European Union as they blew whistles and repeatedly shouted "Thieves, thieves!" during the protests.
Earlier, opposition figures from the Serbia Against Violence list said they wanted to enter the assembly building to address people from the balcony at the site.
The protest had begun in front of the headquarters of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), where thousands of citizens answered calls to appear by the opposition coalition.
The opposition is demanding annulment of election results at all levels because of what it says was widespread fraud, claiming that Vucic's SNS stole the elections.
Vucic denied allegations by domestic nongovernmental organizations, foreign observers, and opposition figures of electoral irregularities. He said the vote took place in a democratic atmosphere and were "the most peaceful ever in modern history."
He said it was solely up to the country's institutions to decide whether any elections should be rerun.
Vucic said the newly elected parliament -- with the SNS in control -- would be installed in January 2024 and that formation of the government is expected at the end of February.
He added, without elaborating, that he did not expect Ana Brnabic to remain as prime minister in the next government. But he said she will perform "significant functions in the future."
On December 23, the Serbian Prosecutor's Office said it had launched an investigation into allegations of fraud during the elections after it said it received reports of possible irregularities, including vote buying and the falsifying of ballots and signatures
The OSCE and other international observers denounced what they called a series of "irregularities" in the voting. Domestic nongovernmental election-monitoring groups also alleged irregularities following the vote.
Among the claims by the opposition were allegations that the ruling party brought in ethnic Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina and other former Yugoslav republics to vote in the capital.
Election officials at the RIK on December 24 said that, following a check of voter lists, they had determined that the claims of ineligible voters taking part in the Belgrade elections were "not true."
On election night, the Belgrade Electoral Commission reported that the SNS list won 39.3 percent of the votes (49 mandates) in the Belgrade elections, and the Serbia Against Violence list won 34.3 percent (42 mandates).
In the nationwide parliamentary vote, officials said that, based on complete but uncertified results, the SNS received about 46 percent of the vote and Serbia Against Violence won 23.5 percent.
Officials said final results on both parliamentary and local elections in Belgrade are still pending and could take months to determine, given that some objections filed could lead to the repeating of elections at particular precincts.