Serbia to elect new parliament in October
Serbia will hold snap parliamentary elections in October 2026. President Aleksandar Vučić said the vote will be held on October 18 or 25, with the exact date to be announced in the coming days. The elections are being held more than a year earlier than previously planned.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has announced that the country will hold snap parliamentary elections in October this year. He made the announcement on RTS television on August 20.
According to Vučić, the vote will be held on October 18 or 25. The exact date of the elections is expected to be announced in the coming days. Thus, the parliamentary elections will be held more than a year earlier than originally scheduled.
In late June, Vučić also said that he intends to step down as president in the near future. He has been in power in Serbia for 12 years, and his second term will end in mid-2027. According to the Serbian Constitution, one person cannot serve more than two terms as president.
For more than a year and a half, mass protests have been taking place in Serbia against the government and corruption. The protests were sparked by the collapse of a railway station in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people.
According to Reuters, student-led demonstrations regularly draw tens of thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands. The protesters accuse Vucic and his entourage of widespread corruption, links to organized crime, violence against political opponents and curbs on freedom of expression. The Serbian government and Vucic have denied such accusations.
One of the main demands of the protesters was early parliamentary elections. According to public opinion polls, about 80 percent of the Serbian population supports the students' anti-corruption demands. About 64 percent of those surveyed said they support the protests themselves.