Serbia Votes in Snap Parliamentary Election on October 25: Student Movement Challenges Aleksandar Vucic in Tight Race
Serbia voted in a snap parliamentary election on Sunday, October 25: polling stations in the Balkan country of some 6 million people opened at 7 a.m. and were due to close at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT), with first indications of the results expected about two hours later. According to Reuters, a list fielded by the student protest movement is challenging Aleksandar Vucic, who has held power first as prime minister and then as president for more than a decade, in what is seen as the biggest test of his rule so far.
Vucic called the snap election in September after almost two years of student-led demonstrations. The protests were triggered by the collapse of a railway station canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people and which protesters blame on corruption. The student list fields 250 candidates, including university professors, actors and farmers, led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic; the Democratic Party and the Kreni Promeni movement backed the students rather than fielding their own lists. Vucic resigned as president on September 27 to run for prime minister. His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)-led list campaigns on economic growth, higher wages and pensions, infrastructure investment and political stability, and has pledged 4% economic growth in 2027.
Opinion polls predict a tight race: an Ipsos poll published on Thursday put the SNS ahead with 47% of votes versus 40% for the students, while other polls have put the students in the lead. "The Serbian election is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the country as the Student List mounts the biggest challenge against Vucic yet," said Mario Bikarski, senior Europe analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. Bogdan Pavkovic, at a final student rally in Belgrade on Thursday, said he wanted to change "this awful, horrendous system which cheats on us, which spies on us, which beats us." Vucic and the SNS have repeatedly denied accusations of repression, corruption and spying on opponents, and say the students are funded by foreign agents, a charge the students dismiss.
Abroad, Vucic has balanced closer ties with China, a major investor, and Russia, Serbia's traditional ally and principal supplier of natural gas, while leaving the door open to joining the European Union. Reuters noted that relations with the EU have frayed over a lack of reforms on the judiciary, rule of law and corruption. The students' domestic agenda aims to root out graft and improve schooling, though they have been quieter on their international ambitions.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于塞尔维亚 Belgrade 的国民议会大楼（Pudelek／Marcin Szala 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）
- 2026-10-23Some 150,000 Rally in Belgrade Behind the 'Student List' Ahead of Serbia's October 25 Parliamentary Election
- 2026-10-25Serbia Votes in Snap Parliamentary Election on October 25: Student Movement Challenges Aleksandar Vucic in Tight RaceThis story
- 2026-10-25Vucic Concedes Serbia's Parliamentary Election: Student List Projected to Win 135-140 Seats Against His Camp's 105
- 2026-10-26Follow-up: Serbia Count Nears 97 Percent: Student List Leads With 52.65%, CeSID Projects 140 Seats
- 2026-10-27Follow-up: With Almost 99 Percent Counted in Serbia, Student List on 52.7 Percent and 139 Seats, Ruling Alliance on 97
