Once powerful Democrats in turmoil after Belgrade election

The chairman of the City Board of the Democratic Party (DS) in Belgrade, Balsa Bozovic, resigned on Tuesday.

According to Bozovic, he sent a letter to the members of the City Board in which he stated that "the defeat in the elections for the Belgrade Assembly obligates everyone to bear their own responsibility in the name of the future of the DS".

The presidency of the party, that is in opposition at the state level, will hold a joint session with its parliamentary club on Thursday, March 8, the DS announced on Wednesday. At the session, DS President Dragan Sutanovac will submit a report, while the results of local elections held on Sunday will be reviewed.

In Belgrade, the list led by SNS leader and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won in a landslide - receiving 44.99 percent of the vote, while three more tickets managed to win seats in the new City Assembly.

The voters left everyone else, including the Democrats, below the five percent threshold. The DS, which was a decade ago in power in all of Serbia, and from whose ranks came several Belgrade mayors, including Zoran Djidjic, Nenad Bogdanovic, and Dragan Djilas, on Sunday received just over two percent of the vote.

Speaking on election night, Dragan Sutanovac said the result was "bad" and that he would not run away from responsibility for the fact the DS coalition remained below the census.

"We (the DS) are 28 years old and today we have stumbled, but democracy cannot be imagined without the DS. That was the case in the past, and so it will be in the future," said Sutanovac.

Elsewhere, due to their election debacle, the presidency of the Enough is Enough Movement collectively resigned.