Serbia votes in high-stakes election as student-led movement challenges Vucic’s ruling party

Serbia is voting in parliamentary election in more than 14 years, as a student-led movement seeks to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic. This comes after two years of student-led protests. It was sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people. The disaster triggered some of Serbia's largest protests since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The Students' List, a selection of candidates backed by the largely leaderless movement, now poses the biggest challenge to Vucic's right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has dominated politics throughout its tenure.

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What we know about the candidates?

Serbia’s 250-member parliament is at the centre of a fiercely contested election, with several leading opposition parties opting not to contest and instead urging their supporters to back the student-led movement. Since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, when around 70 per cent of voters cast ballots to oust him, parliamentary turnout has declined, averaging just over 55 per cent during the rule of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Most of the 250 candidates on the Students’ List are experts from fields such as academia and the arts, with little political experience. The movement’s broad platform centres on a pledge to fight corruption. President Aleksandar Vucic has also campaigned nationwide, meeting citizens in villages and towns while repeatedly accusing the student movement of plotting a foreign-funded coup. “Let us never forget how they tried to bring down our state. Let us always protect and defend it,” he told supporters at his party’s final rally in Belgrade.

Days before the election, Serbian civil society groups warned that conditions for “free and fair elections” were lacking. “This assessment is not based on isolated incidents, opposition claims or political disagreement with the government,” a joint statement issued by 24 organisations said. “It is supported by documented findings from independent Serbian organisations working in different fields.”

Polling hours

Domestic and international observers are expected to monitor the vote, while students have mobilised large numbers of volunteers to oversee the process. Polling stations in Serbia will open at 7 am (0600 GMT) and close at 8 pm. Electoral authorities have ordered overseas polling stations to follow Serbian voting hours, forcing some voters to cast their ballots in the early hours. In Chicago, which is home to one of the largest Serbian communities in the United States, polling stations will open at 1 am local time. The unusual timing has prompted some voters to announce “pyjama voting parties” on social media.