Early Reports Point to Record Turnout as Serbia Votes in Pivotal Parliamentary Election

Serbian voters appear to have turned out in unusually large numbers for Sunday's parliamentary election, according to early reports, as a student protest movement tries to end the rule of the country's right-wing populist leader.

Preliminary figures indicate that 46% of voters had cast ballots by 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT). That is nearly a million more than at the same point in the previous election, held in December 2023, and points to a possible record turnout. Voting closes at 20:00, and first indications of the results are expected two hours later.

The strong showing is raising hopes for the opposition Student List, which wants to remove Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) from power. They have governed since 2012. Most commentators suggest that a final turnout of 65% or higher would favor the students.

Vučić called the snap election after two years of student protests. The demonstrations were triggered by the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy that killed 16 people, an event widely seen as a symbol of corruption and negligence in Serbia. Vučić and the SNS deny corruption and deny trying to influence the media.

The Student List is an anti-corruption movement. Its manifesto includes purging officials who broke rules in cracking down on protesters, preventing party loyalists from running public enterprises, and freeing the public broadcaster from political control. Student-led assemblies at university faculties chose its 250 candidates, who include doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities. Ilija Srdanović, a professor at Novi Sad University, heads the list.

Vučić has served two terms as president and cannot seek a third, so he is leading his party in an effort to return as prime minister, a post he left in 2017. He still has strong backing among many Serbians who see him as a leader defending national interests, and he can point to economic growth and infrastructure improvements over the past decade. He supports Serbia's bid to join the European Union while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and has promised higher pensions and public sector pay, plus investment in state healthcare. In a campaign video he said: "These are the hands that hold Serbia in their palms."

Long queues formed at polling stations in big cities and small towns, as well as abroad, including in Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago. In Paris, voters waited in heavy rain. In Belgrade, police closed streets around the Republic Electoral Commission, and cars near the building played a folk song, "I want three kisses," a nod to the Student List's number three position on the ballot. The SNS is number one.

Concerns about fraud are running high. The students have assigned at least two observers to each of the 8,210 polling stations. Videos on social media on Sunday morning allegedly show a cafe in the southern city of Nis where ballots were filled out in advance, a practice known as chain voting. There have also been reports of attacks on election monitors and journalists at several polling stations. The electorate is listed at 6.45 million in a population of 6.53 million, which has fueled doubts about the voter register.

Žarko Korać, a former deputy prime minister and longtime opponent of nationalist parties, called the vote "a unique experiment in European contemporary history." He warned that it is "anybody's guess" how a group of candidates with unknown political views would form a government, and said he doubts the students would accept a late-night Vučić victory declaration. A close result with both sides claiming victory, he suggested, could bring weeks or months of instability.