Conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic won Serbia's presidential election on Sunday in a landslide with 58 per cent of votes, according to a result projection by the Ipsos polling group.

Opposition candidate Sasa Jankovic came second with 14 per cent, Ipsos said based on 40 per cent of votes counted from a sample of polling stations. 

The result confirmed Vucic's almost unchallenged domination of the Balkan country, which he wants to take into the European Union while preserving strong ties with fellow Russia. The role of president is largely ceremonial, but Vucic is expected to retain real power through his control of Serbia's ruling Progressive Party.

To his supporters, Vucic, 47, is a cool head and a firm hand in a troubled region. "I voted for stability, we've had enough wars," said Bozica Ivanovic, a 65-year-old pensioner who voted for Vucic.

"We need more jobs for younger people and if we can get higher pensions and salaries, even better." Vucic's opponents, however, say he has an authoritarian that has led him to take control over the media in Serbia since his party rose to power in 2012 and he became prime minister three years ago.

He denies the charge but has struggled to shake it given his record when last in government in the dying days of Yugoslavia. Then in his late 20s, Vucic was Serbia's feared information minister behind draconian legislation designed to muzzle criticism of the government during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

As president Vucic would have few formal powers, among them the right to send legislation back to parliament for reconsideration. But he is widely expected to appoint a loyal ally as prime minister and try to keep a tight rein on policy, as former President Boris Tadic, then of the Democratic Party, did between 2004 and 2012. Some analysts said that could yet prove difficult. "Vucic will now be distanced from everyday policy-making and executive affairs and will have to rely on a proxy," Eurasia Group wrote in on March 30. "This will likely generate some tensions in the chain of command."

Source: Timesofoman