Serbia opposition MP vows to keep up hunger strike

BELGRADE: Looking frail but determined, Serbian opposition leader Marinika Tepic fixes her makeshift bed -- a leather sofa inside a parliament building, where she has been on hunger strike since Monday.

The 49-year-old is protesting what she says was “electoral fraud” during parliamentary and local elections held in Serbia on December 17, and is demanding the results be annulled. She is not alone. Tepic is one of seven members of the main opposition camp, united under the banner “Serbia Against Violence”, to have gone on hunger strike over the results.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic´s party said it secured a commanding victory during the ballot. But a team of international observers -- including representatives from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) -- denounced several “irregularities”, including “vote buying” and “ballot box stuffing”.

Since Saturday, Tepic has been receiving intravenous liquids daily, but refuses to eat food. “They (the doctors) are trying to maintain this condition as long as possible, because I have no intention to give up until fake elections are annulled, until they admit to electoral fraud, and until the will of the people is defended,” Tepic told AFP in an interview.