Central Belgrade is blocked by protesters

Schoolchildren, high school students and students, united around the "Fight" initiative, continue a 24-hour blockade in front of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government in Belgrade to express their dissatisfaction with the regime of Aleksandar Vucic, BGNES reported.

The students set up a tent camp. Some of them play guitars, others read books. Protesters want access to voter lists to begin an investigation into fraud in the Dec. 17 election, including the organized transport of "phantom" voters from Republika Srpska and northern Kosovo to vote in the Belgrade election.

For the second time in a week, students blocked part of the central streets of the Serbian capital to express their dissatisfaction.

This time the blockade, which started at 12:00 local time (13:00 Bulgarian time), will last 24 hours, and the organizers received support from a number of organizations and some public figures.

"The goal of today's blockades, like the previous ones, is to talk to the people, to revive them and inform them about the problem in this whole election process," said Ivan Bielich, an activist and one of the organizers of the blockades.

The blockade is taking place at a location which is close to the Emergency Centre, which is why the students announced that they will leave the middle lane free for ambulances to pass normally, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

"We don't live in a democratic country. We have a right to elections that are conducted in accordance with the law, but this is not the case. We are here to change things for the better, we don't want to live in a country run by people, who only care about their own interests," said Kristina Jovanovic, a participant in the blockades and a student at the Faculty of Philology.

The "Proglas" initiative, which unites public figures from various areas, has announced a large rally tomorrow, December 30, in Belgrade. People from today's tent camp will join the big demonstration after 12:00. local time. Lawyer Boja Prelevic will give a public lecture on "what happens if we are arrested."

Earlier, the students blocked the offices, e-mails and telephones of the Ministry of State Administration, as well as that of Minister Aleksandar Martynović of the ruling "Serbian Progressive Party", whose telephone number they persistently started calling.

BGNES recalls that international observers indicated in their reports very serious violations on election day, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that these elections were "the cleanest and fairest so far". Because of the violations, members of the opposition started a hunger strike. They are demanding the annulment of the elections in Serbia because of the theft of the vote, in which they accuse Vucic.

The protests began the day after the vote and were mostly peaceful until December 24, when demonstrators tried to storm the Belgrade Assembly. They broke the front door of the historic building in downtown Belgrade and broke windows, and the police responded with tear gas and arrests. More than 30 people were arrested and the group is under investigation. The opposition claims that what happened was carried out by provocateurs financed by Vucic and his allies.

The President and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, meanwhile, "thanked the Russian services" for warning Belgrade about the "rebellion of the opposition". /BGNES