Confusion is the word that best describes the general mood right after local elections in Zaječar and Kosjerić.
In Kosjerić, according to the minutes available on the website of the Republic Election Commission, The Serbian Progressive Party has only 51 votes more than the United for Kosjerić list.
In Zaječar, according to available information, the Serbian Progressive Party won 14.199 votes, "Change in which we believe" won 10.312 votes, "United for the salvation of Zaječar" 2.184. Translated into mandates - 27 for SNS, and 23 for the opposition.
It turns out that the opposition did not win in any of the two seats. But before we fall into the abyss of defeatism, we must recapitulate yesterday. Then we will see that everything has gone as well as it can at the moment. And that from now on, it can only get better.
Seriously mutilated in Kosjerić
The difference of 51 votes is nothing but proof that the ruling party cheated, stole and brokered before the elections.
Yes, it's a small place, not even 9.000 registered voters, but in such a small place, during the entire election day, there were so many incidents that we can't even count them.
People, we saw not only the Gendarmerie and the police intervention unit, but also the traffic police with long pipes. A man discovered a makeshift SNS headquarters in his own business building.
Despite this, today, and according to these debatable results, we have the outcome according to which the opposition won 48,54 percent, and the SNS 49,23 percent of the votes. In the previous local elections, SNS had 68,78 percent in Kosjerić. In absolute numbers, they won 2021 votes in 4575, and now 3686.
They didn't crack, but they cracked. Even when they are staring.
And Zaječar didn't give up either.
In the last local elections in Zaječar, also in 2021, SNS won 24 mandates, SPS 4 mandates, Nenad Ristović's list 16, Citizens' group "We can do better - DRAGANA RAŠIĆ" 4, and so on... Now, the same Dragana Rašić, together with Uglješ Đuričković, wins 19 mandates, while e.g. Nenad Ristović remains below the census.
The spectacular shooting of Ristović in Zaječar is a signal of what the people of Zaječar think about SNS. Because this doctor had an electoral list in 2021 that was a serious competitor to the SNS, he swore that he would never be with them, returned the order to Vučić, and then in the 2022 parliamentary elections he was - on the list of the SNS.
So, maybe honest voters couldn't do anything to the rampaging SNS machinery that occupied their city and everything around it in the days before the elections, but they managed to sink at least one flyover they once trusted.
So what about this?
The number of recorded irregularities is so great that there is absolutely no chance that these results are correct.
The Serbian Progressive Party harnessed everything it has in this campaign: asphalt, white machinery, lambs, piglets, intimidation, threats, double lists, plus, a whole company of well-known progressives who visited the residents of Zaječar and Kosjerić. Including Aleksandar Vučić.
And what did they achieve? To steal just by a hair's breadth.
They raised everything they have and everything they know. The other side, supported by the students in the blockade, is just beginning to learn and acquire knowledge, and to discover the mechanisms that work and lead to a democratic electoral victory. The campaign for going to the polls and the "Student in every village" campaign produced results.
Unlike those who have given everything they have, they have an opponent who has just started. That opponent, embodied above all in the student movement, may not have SNS's infrastructure, lack scruples and state money to waste on refrigerators and combine harvesters for voters. But he has élan, strength and a healthy determination to change.
The change has begun, and the bewilderment and bewilderment about the results is still a positive change compared to the despair after all the previous elections under this government.
