Student list wins Serbian parliamentary election as Vucic concedes
In Serbia's October 25 parliamentary election, the student movement's list took 52.45% of the vote and 138 seats, ahead of the list of the party that has dominated politics for 14 years. Several incidents and irregularities were reported on election day.
The Student List, a movement born from anti-corruption protests, won Serbia's parliamentary election on October 25, taking 52.45% of the vote and 138 seats in the National Assembly. The Aleksandar Vucic – United Serbia list, backed by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), received 39.2% and 103 seats. The SNS has dominated Serbian politics for 14 years and is led by Vucic, the outgoing president. On election night Vucic acknowledged his party's defeat.
Origins of the movement
The student movement emerged after the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, which killed 16 people and sparked nationwide protests against corruption. It was initially non-partisan before deciding to contest elections. The students did not run themselves; instead they nominated qualified people with no political background, chosen through a democratic process organised within universities.
How the vote unfolded
Turnout was 69%, with more than 4.4 million citizens voting, compared with 55.5% in the December 2023 parliamentary election.
Supporters of the movement say they spent a year and a half preparing to prevent fraud. They trained at least 16,000 official controllers, two per polling station, and about five people per station for mobile teams. These teams looked for parallel voter lists, carousel voting, vote buying and intimidation. Student supporter Petar Botoski said that tracking fraud had an impact on the results.
Attacks were reported on election day. In Pancevo, masked men used pyrotechnic devices against Student List monitors, and in the Ovca area of Belgrade, members of a mobile team that found an alleged vote-buying headquarters were attacked. CRTA, a Serbian democracy watchdog, said the most frequent irregularity was the photographing of ballots, observed at up to 50% of monitored polling stations. Voting booths with curtains were used for the first time, which students say makes photographing ballots easier.
CRTA programme director Rasa Nedeljkov said polling boards were filled with well-prepared representatives for the first time.
What comes next
The next test for the students will be the presidential election in December 2026.
