Inflation-hit Serbia heads to polls after months of protests

(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, DEC 15 - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will not be on the ballot in Sunday's parliamentary and local elections, but the contest is nevertheless a referendum on his government amid soaring inflation and months of protests.
    After more than a decade in power, Vucic's right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) looks likely to extend its rule, according to polls, despite hard-fought municipal races in the capital Belgrade. Serbians have been battered by rising prices, with inflation hitting roughly 12 percent. "The situation in the country is not ideal... I know your life is hard, that you have problems," Vucic told supporters at a campaign rally last week.
    To blunt the hard edges of inflation ahead of elections, he unleashed a torrent of state spending -- boosting pensions and handing out cash to the elderly. The policies appear to be paying off, with the SNS forecast to secure at least 40 percent of the vote, which would pave the way for victory for Vucic and his allies. Vucic's SNS faces the toughest competition from a loose coalition of opposition parties and candidates running under the "Serbia Against Violence" banner. The movement was formed in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings earlier this year that spurred hundreds of thousands to take to the streets.
    The rallies quickly morphed into anti-government protests that lasted months. According to Vladimir Pejic of the Faktor Plus polling institute, more voters are undecided before Sunday's poll than in the past. "We have for the first time after a series of election cycles another larger political force apart from SNS -- Serbia Against Violence," Pejic told the Danas newspaper. (ANSA-AFP).