Serbia voter turnout highest in decades as students oppose longtime leader
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Polls have closed in Serbia’s snap parliamentary election, which saw the highest voter turnout in decades, with a student-backed movement seeking to unseat longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic.
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Voting ended at 8pm local time (19:00 GMT) on Sunday, with first indications of the result expected a few hours later.
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The vote will determine whether Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has governed since 2012, can retain power against a movement born from nationwide anticorruption protests.
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The State Election Commission said that voter turnout had reached 64.9 percent by 17:00GMT, the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.
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The higher turnout does not show which side gained support.
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University of Belgrade researcher Jelena Vasiljevic told Al Jazeera in an interview published on Friday that the SNS had a reliable voter base, while the students needed to attract people who normally did not vote.
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Sunday’s voting was also marked by reports of intimidation and procedural problems.
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The Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), an independent election watchdog, said its observers recorded pressure on voters or election workers at almost a third of the 500 polling stations it monitored.
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It also reported failures to protect ballot secrecy.
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By 5pm (16:00 GMT), the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID), an election-monitoring group, had received about 260 reports of potential irregularities, including ballot photography, group voting and difficulties with identification checks.
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In Belgrade, police wearing riot helmets and carrying shields deployed near the election commission’s headquarters, where roads were closed and barricades erected.
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City prosecutors appealed on Sunday for everyone involved in the election to avoid violence.
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The election follows nearly two years of student-led protests that began after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people.
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Demands for accountability widened into a movement against alleged government corruption and repression. Vucic and the SNS deny those accusations.
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The Student List – Students Win, which emerged from demonstrations, is fielding candidates drawn from professions, including medicine and education, many of whom have no political experience.
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The movement campaigns for stronger institutions and an end to corruption.
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Some established opposition parties have backed the students rather than field candidates of their own.
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Vucic resigned as president in September to run for prime minister, promising higher pensions, public-sector wages and investment.
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Supporters credit his rule with modernising Serbia’s economy.
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About six and a half million people were eligible to vote for 250 parliamentary seats, with 18 electoral lists competing. A majority of 126 seats is needed to form a government.
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