Social Democratic Party

Romania’s center-left governing coalition has won the European parliamentary elections, with around 37.5 per cent of the vote, according to first preliminary results announced on Monday by the Central Electoral Bureau.

The governing alliance is comprised of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and two minor parties. Together they should get around 16 seats in the European Parliament.

A total of 717 polling stations will open from 7am to 8pm on Sunday May 25 for local elections in 12 of the country’s 22 municipalities. Almost 315,000 people have a right to vote.

Local elections, held in accordance with a new EU-backed electoral law, will take place in Podgorica, Bar, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Zabljak, Kolasin, Plav, Pluzine, Pljevlja, Rozaje, Savnik and Gusinje.

European elections on 25 May will be marked by a high degree of absenteeism in Romania, as only 28 per cent of people say they intend to vote on Sunday, a poll released on Wednesday said.

BERLIN - The Serbian government, headed by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, has Berlin's full political support, Serbia's chief EU negotiator Tanja Miscevic has said.

Newly elected opposition legislators did not appear on Wednesday at the State Electoral Commission, SEC, to receive their certificates to sit in the 123-member parliament.

Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, said the struggle to seek control of Podgorica will be "the toughest election battle" his party has faced since the independence referendum back in 2006. 

Macedonia's Social Democratic Party, SDSM, is to take a decision on Tuesday on what to do next following its defeat in Sunday's elections.

One option up for consideration is for the party to refuse to take up its seats in parliament.

A row erupted after the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, a party from Bosnia’s Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, insisted that the next head of the agency that regulates the country’s broadcasting and telecommunications sectors and allocates frequencies should be a Serb.

A dispute over the second-round presidential run-off and snap parliamentary elections erupted as polls closed at 7pm local time, with the authorities praising the vote as democratic while the opposition Social Democrats claimed the elections were fraudulent, setting the scene for fresh political discord in the country.

Polling stations will be open in Macedonia until 7pm Sunday.

This is the eighth general election since Macedonia became independent in the 1990s and the third early parliamentary election in a row. It is also the fifth presidential election since independence.