Serbia's election commission said 64.9% of voters had already cast ballots by 18:00 local time in the parliamentary election, two hours before polls were due to close. The preliminary figure pointed to unusually high participation in a vote that could decide whether Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party keep their grip on power.
That is why the count was being watched so closely across Serbia on Sunday. Vučić, 56, has spent two terms as president and is leading his party with an eye on returning to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017. Student List is trying to force him out after two years of protests that began with the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy that killed 16 people.
The turnout matters because the students have argued that a bigger vote would favor them, and long queues formed outside polling stations in Serbia and abroad. Serbian voters were seen waiting in Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago, while in Paris they stood in heavy rain. Student List says the public wants a purge of officials who broke rules, an end to party loyalists heading public enterprises and a broadcaster free of political control.
But the high turnout does not settle the fight on its own. Vučić and the SNS deny corruption and say they are not trying to control the media, and he still has strong support among many voters. Independent watchdog CRTA reported a large number of irregularities and a rising number of violent incidents outside polling stations, while police had not confirmed any major election-related violence, according to AFP news agency.
The final turnout and result will decide whether the students' surge was enough to break the balance that has existed since 2012, or whether Vučić can turn another crowded election day into proof that his camp still commands the larger share of Serbia's voters.
