Serbia sees record turnout in election where student list challenges Vučić's rule
Serbia is holding a snap parliamentary election in which President Aleksandar Vučić's 12-year rule faces a challenge from a student-movement list. Projected turnout reached 56.4% by 4pm, while monitors report pressure on voters.
Serbia is voting on Sunday, 25 October, in a snap parliamentary election in which President Aleksandar Vučić, in power for 12 years, faces a list created by the country's student movement, known as the Student List. The outcome could show whether the opposition can threaten his long-held grip on power, and it may shape Serbia's relations with the European Union and Russia.
Record turnout
Projected turnout reached 56.4% by 4pm, more than 14 percentage points above the same point in 2023. That is already only slightly below the 2023 final figure, with four hours of voting still to go. Florian Bieber, a politics professor at the University of Graz, said high turnout strongly indicates a good performance for the students, though Vučić may mobilise voters in other ways, so the picture is not clear-cut.
Allegations and observers
After the 2023 vote, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights concluded that the process was technically well run but created unjust conditions favouring the ruling party. This time, around 15,500 domestic observers are deployed, three times the 2023 number, along with just over 600 foreign monitors. The pro-democracy group CRTA reported pressure on voters in roughly a third of polling stations and voters photographing their ballots in up to 40% of them. Social media carried reports of incidents near polling stations, which remain unverified. Earlier, CRTA recorded at least 116 incidents of physical violence and verbal threats against voters during the campaign.
Foreign policy
Vučić maintains close ties with Russia and has rejected sanctions against it. The Student List's manifesto also pledges to keep the traditional partnership with Russia, while committing to respect the territorial integrity of other countries, including Ukraine. Serbia has been an EU candidate since 2012, but the process has been effectively frozen. The students do not make a clear pledge on EU membership, but want Serbia to reach IBAR status, a European Commission assessment of progress on fundamentals such as the rule of law.
The OSCE and European Parliament missions will present preliminary conclusions on Monday afternoon.
