Serbia heads to Sunday's election: Vučić's SNS against a student-led list born of two years of protests

Serbia’s 6.5 million voters go to the polls on Sunday, 25 October, in a parliamentary election that The Guardian calls a watershed, marked by unrest and allegations of irregularities. On Wednesday, students who had marched from cities across the country gathered in Belgrade, while Aleksandar Vučić held a rally in the south, AP reported.

Who is running

Aleksandar Vučić, who has dominated Serbian politics for 14 years, resigned as president to head the “United Serbia” list of his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in a bid to become prime minister. His main rival is the Student List, a decentralised, student-led coalition without a single leader that grew out of the protests that followed the November 2024 collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy, which killed 16 people.

The campaign was also shaped by the funeral with military honours in Belgrade last month of general Ratko Mladić, convicted by the UN tribunal for crimes including the Srebrenica genocide, The Guardian noted. Traditional opposition parties have shrunk, and one nationalist party withdrew amid allegations of Russian influence.

Uncertain outcome

Polls conflict: some show the SNS ahead, others the Student List, others a tie. A majority requires 126 of 250 seats. The Guardian cites concerns about voter-list manipulation and pressure on activists, raising the risk that the result will be contested. Polls are open 7:00 to 20:00 local time; first independent projections are expected from about 21:00. Serbia is an EU candidate that balances ties with the West, Russia and China.