Serbia votes as students seek to unseat Vucic in snap election
The student-backed challenge centers on corruption, with 18 electoral lists competing and turnout expected to be unusually high, officials said.
- With limited polling stations available abroad for Sunday's election, Serbians are forming grassroots networks to arrange long-distance travel and accommodation. The Serbian Electoral Commission approved only 93 sites globally.
- Critics allege the government deliberately restricted polling locations to suppress turnout among expatriates, who are viewed as less supportive of populist leader Aleksandar Vucic. The ruling Serbian Progressive Party faces its biggest electoral challenge from a student-led movement.
- Volunteers launched VoteBnB, matching hundreds of requests with 1,300 accommodation and 750 ride-share offers. Voters in Canada face 3,500-kilometre journeys from Vancouver to Toronto, while Australians are organizing 900-kilometre trips from Brisbane to Sydney.
- Many voters face grueling middle-of-the-night polling times to align with Serbian time zones. Irina Djordjic, a Serbian citizen in Canada, said, "Some people have small children, some can't be absent for too long."
- Tens of thousands of overseas ballots could influence the tight race, as participants describe their efforts as supporting the student movement. This reflects broader efforts to reverse Serbia's democratic backsliding under Vucic in the Balkan nation.
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Until 16H00 local time, participation reached 56.38 percent, according to the Republican Institute of Statistics.
The election commission announced a turnout of 64.89 per cent at 6 p.m. Sunday for the Serbian legislature, a record since 1993.
The early Sunday elections in Serbia were marked by an exceptionally high turnout, which should benefit the Student List. At the end of the day, while the riot police deployed in Belgrade, the tensions were alive.It is 6:30 a.m. this Sunday morning. The offices will open their doors only in half an hour, but a line is already being formed in front of the primary school Saints-Cyrille-et-Method of Belgrade. It is in Zvezdara, a quiet and resident…
The turnout in Sunday's vote was exceptionally high, and was marred by alleged irregularities and rudeness in several places, but in Vojvodina, activists from the DE! Action Community also tried to stand in their way. We spoke to them on the spot.
After 14 years in power, Serbia's populist leader could be overthrown in extraordinary parliamentary elections. 'I'm also a little afraid that it could explode,' a Balkan expert tells DR.
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