Early reports suggest record high turnout in Serbia elections

ByNick Thorpe Reporting fromBelgrade. 25 October 2026, 15: 07 GMT.

Key points

• The apparent high turnout is fuelling the hopes of opposition party Student List that they can oust Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
• The electorate is 6.45 million in a population of 6.53 million, raising reservations concerning the reliability of the electoral register.
• Against the backdrop of fears of electoral fraud by the SNS, the students have delegated at least two observers to each of Serbia's 8, 210 voting stations.
• The snap elections called by Vučić follow two years of student protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy.
• Voting ends at 20: 00, with first indications of results projected two hours afterwards.

As a student protest movement attempts to end the rule of the country's right-wing populist leader, early reports suggest Serbian voters have turned out in sizeable numbers for its parliamentary election.

Preliminary reports suggest a record high turnout, with 46% having cast their vote by 14: 00 local time (13: 00 GMT), almost a million more than the comparable figure for the previous election in December 2023.

Notably, the apparent high turnout is fuelling the hopes of opposition party Student List that they can oust Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). This person have been in power since 2012.

In practice, the snap elections called by Vučić follow two years of student protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy. It killed 16 and was seen as emblematic of corruption and negligence in Serbia.

Anti-corruption movement Student List are running on a manifesto including purging authorities who broke rules cracking down on protesters, stopping party loyalists heading public enterprises, and freeing the public broadcaster of political control.

Vučić and the SNS party deny corruption and seeking to influence the media. What you need to know regarding Serbia's pivotal election. Student movement takes Serbia's Vučić to the wire in neck-and-neck election.

Most commentators suggest that a high final turnout, 65% or above, would favour the students.

Long queues formed outside polling stations in larger cities and smaller towns alike in Serbia, and at polling stations abroad – including Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago. In Paris, Serbian voters waited in line in heavy rain.

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

In the street nearby, cars at the traffic lights lowered their windows to blast one of the students' anthems from loudspeakers, 'I want three kisses' – a folk song favoured since the Students' List is number three on the ballot paper. Young individuals on the pavement nearby kicked off dancing.

Vučić and his SNS party are number one on the ballot paper. He has spent two terms as president and cannot seek a third term, so he is now leading his party with the aim of returning to the post of prime minister. It he left in 2017.

He retains solid backing among a significant section of Serbia's population. They view him as a solid leader who stands up for the country's interests. He can additionally point to significant economic expansion over the past decade and numerous improvements in infrastructure.

Vučić, who backs Serbia's candidacy for the European Union while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, has pledged higher pensions and public sector salaries, and investment in state healthcare.

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

"These are the hands that hold Serbia in their palms, " notes Vučić in his campaign video. "And with these hands, calmly and with dignity, we shall finish what we started." That is question of this election, continuity or change.

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

There have additionally been reports of attacks on election monitors and journalists at a number of polling stations.

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

Instead of running for office themselves, student-led assemblies at the country's university faculties have chosen 250 candidates to stand in the parliamentary election, with Ilija Srdanović, professor at Novi Sad University, heading the list.

Notably, the Student List of candidates for parliament additionally includes doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities.

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

"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 suggests that plenty of former Vučić loyalists in high office could change sides at the last moment, if the students win. A close result, nevertheless, with both sides claiming victory, could result in weeks or months of political instability.

For context, the electorate is 6.45 million in a population of 6.53 million, raising reservations concerning the reliability of the electoral register. Serbs from Kosovo, and dual Serbian citizens from neighbouring Bosnia additionally have the right to vote.

Katarina, 29, informed the BBC she had travelled from the Netherlands back home to Serbia to vote for Student List, even though she could have cast her ballot remotely.

"I wanted to be a part of this, and I wanted to be part of a movement, " she informed the BBC outside a polling station in the capital's Zvezdara district.

"I think they have a chance of winning, " she remarked, but expressed doubt concerning whether such a result would be respected by Vučić.

Asked whether the party's selection of candidates from different walks of life might hinder its ability to govern, she responded: "Just because they're politically inexperienced, they are experts in their own fields, which we have not seen thus far." Extra reporting by André Rhoden-Paul.

Taken together, the developments around early reports suggest record high turnout in Serbia elections point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.