"According to the first preliminary results, the coalition SPS-JUL-ND has so far won an absolute majority in front of the coalition 'Zajedno'," Ivica Dacic, the spokesperson of the SPS, announced only two hours after the polling booths had closed in the elections for the Federal Parliament held on November 3, 1996.
That night, in the election headquarters of the SPS, the Socialists announced new results every hour, all the way until dawn. During the following few days, the SPS election headquarters continued to regularly inform the public.
The same atmosphere was recorded in the JUL election headquarters, where the party's spokesperson, Aleksandar Vulin, held the first press conference at 11pm, and another one an hour later, and continued in that manner until the morning. New information about the victory of the SPS-JUL-ND and the defeat of the coalition "Zajedno" kept arriving. The representatives of the ruling parties spoke about the opposition defeat with scorn and claimed that the people had voted for peace and freedom.
In the same elections, the Federal Election Commission had the first unofficial announcement only two hours after the closure of the polling booths. On that occasion, the FEC announced its unofficial figures about the turnout. As soon as the following day, on November 4, in the afternoon, the FEC announced that it had counted by 17pm 3,345,513 ballots, or 66.52% of the election material.
Unlike in these elections, in the previous elections the Federal Institute for Statistics also regularly provided information about the amount of data processed by this institution.