BELGRADE, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic acknowledged on Thursday that the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) had made mistakes during its years in power and pledged major internal reforms following its defeat in the Oct. 25 snap parliamentary elections.
Speaking at a press conference at the SNS headquarters in Belgrade, Vucic, who headed the SNS-led "Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia" electoral list, said the party would hold a party congress within a month to elect new leadership. He said the proposed changes could replace two-thirds of the party's main board and more than half of its presidency.
"We have understood our own mistakes," Vucic said, stressing that the party needed to acknowledge its shortcomings and take concrete steps to address them. He said the SNS needed to renew its ranks and pay closer attention to ordinary people's needs.
According to preliminary results released by Serbia's Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) on Oct. 26, based on data from 8,187 of the country's 8,392 polling stations, the student-backed "Student List - Students Are Winning" secured 52.71 percent of the vote, winning 140 seats in the 250-member National Assembly. The SNS-led list received 39.17 percent of the vote and 104 seats, marking the end of the party's 14-year rule. ■