Serbian Prez calls for early polls to gain further power

Serbia’s president Tomislav Nikolic on Friday called an early election for late April, with pro-European Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic expected to strengthen his grip on power in the Balkan country’s third vote in four years.

“I have just signed the act on the dissolution of parliament and the decision to call elections on April 24,” President Tomislav Nikolic said in a televised announcement.

In a request for the early vote sent to Nikolic on Thursday, Vucic’s government said it required a clear mandate to complete reforms that would allow it to progress towards joining the European Union. The election comes two years before polls have to be held under the Serbian constitution, and critics say it is a move to prolong Vucic’s term in office.

“This election will be a referendum on whether Serbia wants to be a modern, European country by 2020,” the 45-year-old premier said in a televised interview earlier this week.

The announcement comes amid a crisis over the unprecedented wave of refugees entering Europe, and Vucic has won praise for Serbia’s treatment of the tens of thousands that have passed through its territory since last year.