Serbian capital votes to elect local parliament

BELGRADE, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Citizens of Belgrade will vote on Sunday to decide on the composition of the city assembly that will choose the next mayor.

Around 1,200 polling stations opened here at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), while according to the City of Belgrade Election Commission, a total of 1,606,931 people are eligible to vote at local elections.

Only parties that win more than 5 percent of votes will enter the city assembly, and at one of the first city assembly sessions a new mayor will be elected with a minimum of 56 votes out of the 110 parliament seats.

A recent research published three days ago by Ipsos marketing agency shows that 44 percent people will vote for the ruling Progressive Party of Serbia promoted by current Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who is also the party's chairman.

Around 13.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for former Belgrade mayor Dragan Dilas's Demokratska Stranka, the nation's main opposition party, while 7.9 percent would opt for the list of Aleksandar Sapic, president of New Belgrade municipality.

Among the topics that marked the campaign so far were ways to improve life of citizens through advancing city transportation and building a subway network or to subsidize families' expenses for kindergartens and schoolbooks.

Current Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali from the Progressive party was elected on April 24, 2014, and his four-year mandate is about to expire.

Besides Belgrade, local elections take place in the cities of Sevojno, Arandjelovac and Bor, where people will also elect representatives in their local parliaments. All polling stations close at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) when the counting of ballots starts. Enditem