Serbia votes as students seek to unseat Vucic in snap election
The student-led opposition says corruption and accountability are the main issues, and polls show a tight race between Aleksandar Vucic’s party and the students.
- Serbia will hold its 15th National Assembly election on Sunday, October 25, 2026, with 2,418 candidates across 18 lists competing for 250 seats in a single nationwide contest.
- Aleksandar Vučić, candidate for prime minister, resigned in September to lead the Serbian Progressive Party, aiming to extend his 14-year political dominance following the 2024 Novi Sad station collapse.
- Ipsos polls from October 22 place the Progressive Party at 47.4% and the student-backed list at 40.0%, with parties needing a 3% vote threshold for parliamentary entry.
- The electoral commission finalized the voter register at 6,451,292 on Friday, while prediction markets show $3.6 million in wagers, currently pricing the list led by Vučić at 71.5% to win.
- Framing the election as a referendum on corruption, opposition candidates campaign under the slogan "Serbia or the mafia," testing whether a student-led movement can challenge the current political order.
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280 Articles
The student movement requires the fight against corruption and change.
Serbian voters came to the polls this Sunday (25), at a time when a student protest movement seeks to remove the long-standing populist leader, Aleksandar Vucic — the biggest challenge to his government in more than a decade. Early parliamentary elections, called by Vucic in September, take place after almost two years of demonstrations led by students against corruption and the advance of authoritarianism — a movement that gained strength after…
Live Blog: Serbia Votes in Crucial Parliamentary Elections
Follow BIRN’s reporters for the latest developments as Serbians cast ballots in parliamentary elections seen as a showdown between the governing Serbian Progressive Party and the opposition Student List, which grew out of the student-led protest movement.
On Sunday, long-time President Aleksandar Vučić ran for prime minister using a playbook familiar from Russia, but the country's young people disagree.
Polls opened in Serbia on Sunday morning, with voters in the Balkan country voting to form a new parliament. Media reports suggest the race will be between populist leader and former president Aleksandar Vučić and a student movement that has been protesting against him for nearly two years. Vučić called the snap election a few weeks ago. Preliminary results are expected about two hours after the polls closed at 8 p.m.
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