With 56 per cent of the ballots counted, the provincial electoral commission said on Monday that the SRS was in the lead, having won 30 per cent of the vote. It was followed by the DS with 21 per cent, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians with 11 per cent, the Together for Vojvodina coalition with 9.5 per cent, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) with around 7 per cent of the vote.
Analysts say that the Radicals' success was due to the poor turnout of democratically-minded voters and that SRS supporters again showed that they were very disciplined voters.
The electoral commission said that only 33.59 per cent of Vojvodina's electorate turned out for the vote on Sunday. The largest turnout was reported in the north of the province, where about 40 per cent of voters cast their ballots in local and provincial elections.
The only political party of the Croatian minority achieved the expected result, its leader Petar Kuntic said. The Democratic Alliance of Croats of Vojvodina (DSHV) will for sure have one seat in the provincial parliament, while one more candidate entered the second round of elections. In addition, the DSHV will have up to five seats in the Subotica Municipal Council and two in the Sombor Municipal Council.
Kuntic said that there would never again be such a strong democratic bloc in the provincial assembly and local councils as had been over the past four years. "The rise in the popularity of the Radicals is the reality we must accept," he said, adding that the Croatian community was facing a lot of work on strengthening its institutions.
In the Novi Sad mayoral race, Maja Gojkovic of the SRS won 41.9 per cent of the vote in the first round, while the incumbent mayor, DS candidate Branislav Pomoriski, captured 33.08 per cent.