AFP

Belgrade

Serbians were voting in snap polls yesterday, with the ruling centre-right SNS party tipped to cement its grip on power with the promise of economic reforms that would lead the Balkan country into the EU.

With ballooning public debt, a bloated public sector and record unemployment, the dire state of the economy has overshadowed the thorny issue of Kosovo as the key voter concern.

The outgoing SNS-dominated cabinet, led by Socialist Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, won support from Brussels to begin membership talks only after a historic accord with long-time foe Kosovo last year.

The SNS and its leader Aleksandar Vucic – tipped to become the next premier – called early polls in order to win a new mandate to push ahead with economic reform.

“I want Serbia to pursue a fierce battle against corruption, develop its economy, increase the number of jobs and for this we need difficult and painful reforms,” said Vucic, an ultra-nationalist hawk turned pro-European.

“It will not be easy at all, thousands of other problems must also be solved,” he said after casting his ballot.

His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won most votes in 2012 elections but the post of premier was given to its Socialist coalition partners.

Vucic has spearheaded his party’s popularity mostly thanks to a high-profile anti-graft drive that led to the arrest of several tycoons and former ministers.

Long seen as a pariah for its role in the 1990s Balkan wars, Serbia – the largest country to emerge after the break-up of Yugoslavia – hopes to join the 28-member bloc by 2020.

Kosovo, once the most sensitive issue in Serbia which still refuses to recognise its 2008 declaration of independence, has been overshadowed by state of the economy in the country of 7.2mn people.

A fifth of the workforce is unemployed and the average monthly salary is 350 euros ($480).

Many Serbs, like 45-year old textile worker Jadranka Milosavljevic, moonlight in the so-called grey economy, with no health or social benefits.

“Ordinary people will see no change. Look at me, it’s Sunday, and I’m on my way to my second job to try to make some money for my family,” she said.

With public debt swelling to more than 60% of GDP, the next government will have to reform obsolete labour laws and cut down on  bureaucracy, analysts say.

Serbia’s 8bn-euro ($11bn) budget is struggling to cope with 1.7mn pensioners and a bloated public sector that employs more than 700,000 people.

The future government will have to push through a stringent austerity package, including the privatisation of more than 170 state-owned companies, subsidy cuts and tax increases in a bid to reduce spending and get people back to work.

But 64-year-old pensioner Borivoje Mikic said he expected no change. “The barn is the same, only the animals in it change.”

Despite the gloomy economy, the SNS is riding high in opinion polls with 44% voter support.

Unemployed bank clerk Olga Petrovic, 52, said Vucic and his party offered “the first glimmer of hope”.

“I know we will have to survive painful times, but at least I see a light at the end of a tunnel.”

But 68-year-old retired engineer Bojan Popovic said he had voted for the opposition “for a change”.

“The government has so far been only advertising its moves, the arrests of tycoons, criminals, that’s all fine, but we haven’t seen any results.”

Three hours after polls opened, around 9% of 6.7mn registered voters cast their ballots for a new 250-seat parliament, electoral officials said.

The Socialists are ranked second in opinion polls with 14%, ahead of the opposition Democratic Party with 11%.

“I am convinced that citizens will turn away from the false promises” of the SNS, Democratic Party leader Dragan Djilas said.

The Democrats, failing to find common ground with other opposition parties to fight the SNS, have set their sights on winning back control of Belgrade city hall in municipal polls also being conducted yesterday.

Polling stations closed at 1900 GMT.

Preliminary results were expected early today, with final results by Thursday, March 20.