Early reports suggest record high turnout in Serbia elections

Early indications point to a record turnout in Serbia’s elections

Early signs suggest that Serbian voters have been turning out in large numbers for the country’s election, as a student protest movement tries to bring an end to the rule of its right-wing populist leader.

Preliminary figures from the parliamentary vote indicate a record turnout, with 46% of eligible voters having cast ballots by 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT), almost a million more than at the same point in the previous election in December 2023.

That strong turnout appears to be boosting hopes among the opposition Student List that they can remove Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), who have governed since 2012.

The snap election called by Vučić comes after two years of student protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy, which killed 16 people and was widely seen as a symbol of corruption and negligence in Serbia.

The anti-corruption Student List is campaigning on a platform that includes removing officials who broke rules, cracking down on protesters, ending the practice of party loyalists running public enterprises, and freeing the public broadcaster from political control.

Vučić and the SNS deny corruption and deny trying to influence the media.

Most analysts say that a strong final turnout, of 65% or more, would benefit the students.

Polling closes at 20:00, with the first results expected two hours later.

Long lines formed outside polling stations in both major cities and smaller towns across Serbia, as well as at polling places abroad - including in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago. In Paris, Serbian voters queued in heavy rain.

Tensions remain high throughout Serbia. In Belgrade, police have shut streets around the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK).

Nearby, cars stopped at traffic lights lowered their windows to play one of the students’ anthems from loudspeakers, 'I want three kisses' - a folk song chosen because the Students' List is number three on the ballot paper. Young people on the pavement nearby began dancing.

Vučić and his SNS are listed as number one on the ballot paper. He has completed two terms as president and cannot run for a third, so he is now leading his party in an effort to return to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017.

He still has strong backing from a large part of Serbia’s population. Supporters see him as a strong leader defending the country’s interests. He can also point to substantial economic growth over the past decade and major infrastructure improvements.

Vučić, who supports Serbia’s bid to join the European Union while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, has promised higher pensions and public sector wages, along with investment in state healthcare.

SNS posters displayed across cities show two hands clasped in solidarity: the hands of doctors and nurses, farmers, construction workers, teachers and parents.

"These are the hands that hold Serbia in their palms," says Vučić in his campaign video. "And with these hands, calmly and with dignity, we shall finish what we started."

That is the question in this election: continuity or change.

Amid fears of electoral fraud by the SNS, the students have assigned at least two observers to each of Serbia’s 8,210 polling stations.

Videos circulating on social media on Sunday morning show a cafe in the southern city of Nis, where ballot papers were allegedly completed in advance in a practice known as 'chain voting'. Signs in the window read "private party". When they realise they are being filmed, the papers are quickly hidden.

There have also been reports of attacks on election monitors and journalists at several polling stations.

"We are witnessing a unique experiment in European contemporary history," Žarko Korać, a former deputy prime minister and long-time opponent of nationalist parties in Serbia including the SNS, told the BBC.

Rather than standing for office themselves, student-led assemblies at the country’s university faculties have selected 250 candidates to contest the parliamentary election, with Ilija Srdanović, professor at Novi Sad University, leading the list.

The Student List of parliamentary candidates also includes doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities.

"These are people that don't know each other, you have no idea what their political beliefs are, and we now expect them to create a functioning government. So it's anybody's guess what happens after they win," Korać says.

"On the other hand, if Vučić declares victory this evening, probably late in the evening, I don't think the students will accept that."

Korać says many former Vučić loyalists in senior positions could switch sides at the last minute if the students win. But a tight result, with both sides claiming victory, could lead to weeks or months of political instability.

The electorate stands at 6.45 million in a population of 6.53 million, raising questions about the reliability of the electoral register. Serbs from Kosovo, as well as dual Serbian citizens from neighbouring Bosnia, also have the right to vote.