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The Serbian Progressive Party led by Aleksandar Vucic won an outright parliamentary majority in a general election on a pledge to fight graft, fix the economy and join the European Union by 2020.

Vucics party, which forced the ballot two years earlier than scheduled, won 48.8 percent, more than polls predicted, for 157 of the chambers 250 seats, Serbias independent election monitor said today. Prime Minister Ivica Dacics Socialist Party received 14 percent, for 45 seats, said Marko Blagojevic, director of monitor the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, citing preliminary results.

Vucic, who was once an ally of late Balkan strongman Slobodan Milosevic, pledged to embrace painful austerity measures endorsed by the International Monetary Fund and make Serbia the third former Yugoslav republic to join the EU two decades after the bloody Balkan civil wars. He said he will extend a hand to other parties before forming a new government by May 1.

Im sure that Serbia will continue its European path, Vucic told a media briefing after his party declared victory. We are ready for that kind of dialogue with all the relevant political parties.

Five more parties, including three representing ethnic minorities, crossed the minimum vote threshold to make it into parliament. Final official results will be announced by March 20, according to the Election Commission.

A woman prepares to cast her ballot at a polling station in Gracanica, a district ruled... Read More

A woman prepares to cast her ballot at a polling station in Gracanica, a district ruled by Serbia, on March 16, 2014. Close

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A woman prepares to cast her ballot at a polling station in Gracanica, a district ruled by Serbia, on March 16, 2014.

Vucic has promised billions of dollars worth of investment from the United Arab Emirates to create jobs in an economy which has the same number of active workers and pensioners and where one in four is unemployed. EU accession also promises to raise living standards and economic output per capita, which at 36 percent of the trading blocs average, trails that of poorest member Bulgaria, according to Eurostat.

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Serb Progressives Win Majority in Parliament on EU Pledge