Vucic concedes defeat as student list wins Serbia election

Serbia’s long-time leader Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat to the student-led protest movement in Sunday’s snap parliamentary election.

“We still do not have final results, on the basis of a sample … it is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won, they will have between 135 and 140 seats and we will have 105, no one else has entered parliament,” Vucic said, according to Reuters. A parliamentary majority in the 250-member National Assembly requires 126 seats. (Reuters)

An Ipsos/CeSID projection cited in election-night coverage put the Student List on 52.0 per cent of the vote and 138 seats, with Vucic’s list on 39.3 per cent and 104 seats. Those are estimates, not a certified result from Serbia’s Republic Electoral Commission, and Vucic’s concession does not itself make the projected seat totals official.

The snap election, called by Vucic in September, came after almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism, triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in 2024. Polls closed at 8pm local time on Sunday with record turnout, after monitors reported pressure on voters and hundreds of possible irregularities during the day. (Reuters)

The students have since gained widespread support to become the greatest threat to Vucic since he first became prime minister in 2014 and then president in 2017, Reuters reported.