Serbians were voting in snap polls Sunday, with the ruling centre-right SNS party tipped to cement its grip on power with the promise of economic reforms that would lead the Balkan country into the EU. With ballooning public debt, a bloated public sector and record unemployment, the dire state of the economy has overshadowed the thorny issue of Kosovo as the key voter concern.
The outgoing SNS-dominated cabinet, led by Socialist Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, won support from Brussels to begin membership talks only after a historic accord with long-time foe Kosovo last year.
The SNS and its leader Aleksandar Vucic - tipped to become the next premier - called early polls in order to win a new mandate to push ahead with economic reform.
"I want Serbia to pursue a fierce battle against corruption, develop its economy, increase the number of jobs and for this we need difficult and painful reforms," said Vucic, an ultra-nationalist hawk turned pro-European.
His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won most votes in 2012 elections but the post of premier was given to its Socialist coalition partners.
Vucic has spearheaded his party's popularity mostly thanks to a high-profile anti-graft drive that led to the arrest of several tycoons and former ministers.
Long seen as a pariah for its role in the 1990s Balkan wars, Serbia - the largest country to emerge after the break-up of Yugoslavia - hopes to join the 28-member bloc by 2020.
Kosovo, once the most sensitive issue in Serbia which still refuses to recognise its 2008 declaration of independence, has been overshadowed by state of the economy in the country of 7.2 million people. A fifth of the workforce is unemployed and the average monthly salary is 350 euros ($480).
Many Serbs, like 45-year old textile worker Jadranka Milosavljevic, moonlight in the so-called grey economy, with no health or social benefits.
"Ordinary people will see no change. Look at me, it's Sunday, and I'm on my way to my second job to try to make some money for my family," she said.
Polling stations close at 1900 GMT. Preliminary results are expected early Monday, with final results by March 20.
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