In the early parliamentary elections in Serbia, high turnout was recorded by midday, while reports of irregularities have emerged. According to the Republican Electoral Commission, 34.55 percent of voters had cast their ballots by 12:00 on October 25, and long queues were seen in front of polling stations. This is a higher turnout compared to the 2023 elections, when 21.33 percent had voted by the same time. Meanwhile, the election observation mission CRTA reported that by 13:00, 41.1 percent of the total number of voters had voted. By the same time in the 2023 elections, turnout was 26.6 percent.
Even in the early morning hours, turnout was higher than in the early voting. CRTA said earlier that turnout is simply “outside the historical trend.” Rasha Nedelko of the mission reported irregularities, stressing that by midday a total of 14 percent of procedural irregularities had been recorded.
Among the irregularities are photographing of ballots, problems with the spray and ultraviolet lamps, and other irregularities. In these elections, the third parliamentary elections in the last five years, a student movement that emerged from a citizens’ initiative is seeking to end the 14-year rule of Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
According to the observer mission CRTA, polling stations across Serbia opened mostly on time. Meanwhile, the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) announced that by 09:00, more than 70 irregularities had been reported during voting. According to this organization, cases of photographing ballots, use of phones, voting outside booths and family voting were documented, including a report that one voter had voted on behalf of another person.
Serbian police intervened in a neighborhood of Novi Sad where citizens had gathered. Several people said they had seen people with money and envelopes. Meanwhile, CRTA said six men and one woman obstructed an observer in front of a polling station and insulted her. Meanwhile, in Pančevo, a group of masked persons attacked several young people in front of a polling station, local media reported. According to a video published by Pancevo.city, masked persons with iron bars attack young people, and one of the young men is seen with blood on his face.
Clashes between members of polling station boards, temporary interruptions of voting, incidents and threats against voters, as well as problems with election materials and voter verification, have also been reported.
“Particularly worrying is the obstruction of observers’ access. In some polling stations, observers have not been allowed access, so we must contact the responsible authorities and intervene so that they can do their work,” CeSID said. Polling stations are open from 07:00 and citizens of Serbia can vote until 20:00. There are 6,450,523 citizens entitled to vote. Voting is taking place at 8,392 polling stations, 93 of which are located abroad.
Vučić resigned from the presidency at the end of September. Since he cannot run for a third term, he now aims to become prime minister, a post he held from 2014 until he was elected president in 2017. However, the election campaign has been accompanied by growing concerns about possible electoral manipulation. The elections are being closely monitored by the European Union, which has criticized Serbia for backsliding on democracy under Vučić’s leadership.
An uncertain outcome
In a climate of deep divisions and social tensions, Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) aims to retain power after two years of mass protests against the government and corruption across the country. But for the first time in many years, it faces a real challenger: the Student List, a movement that emerged from these protests.
“These are the first elections in more than a decade whose outcome is truly very uncertain,” said Vladimir Bilčik, former European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia, to Radio Free Europe (RFE).
Polls to date show that the electorate in Serbia is largely split between those who support a broad coalition built around the ruling party and those who back the student movement.
The students have no formal leaders, while their electoral list is made up of non-partisan figures, most of whom are university professors.
On November 1, 2024, the collapse of the newly renovated roof of the city’s railway station killed 16 people. Suspicions of corruption in the works of one of the government’s main projects, led by a Chinese company, brought protesters onto the streets across the country.
The government denied the allegations, while protesters faced police violence and arrests. One of the most serious incidents occurred on March 15, 2025, when authorities allegedly used a sonic weapon illegally against peaceful demonstrators.
Vučić versus the Student List
More than 6.4 million eligible voters will choose among 2,418 candidates for the 250 seats in Parliament. However, the race is expected to take place mainly between Vučić’s party and the Student List.
At its core are the continuation of Vučić’s policies, including close ties with Russia and China, and the students’ pledge to fight corruption.
Some U.S. lawmakers have warned that Moscow may play an active role in the elections, while the European Parliament has raised concerns about Russian influence operations in Serbia.
“Russia is making available its best resources, tactics and methods to monitor, suppress and obstruct the citizens of Serbia, as well as the powerful student movement that wants to restore the rule of law in the country,” Republican Congressman Joe Wilson told RFE.
In addition to close ties with Russia, Serbia’s main gas supplier, Vučić has sought to strengthen relations with China, a major investor in the country, while maintaining the long-standing goal of European Union membership. He has also sought to improve relations with the United States and Israel.
During the campaign, he pledged to continue this foreign policy course, including refusing to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, despite calls from the EU.
The student movement, meanwhile, has put foreign policy on the back burner. However, it has opposed sanctions against Russia and reiterated its support for Belgrade’s official position against recognizing Kosovo’s independence.
“This shows that even students are unable to escape the trap of Serbia’s nationalist politics, which is built on the myth of Kosovo,” Belgrade professor Zharko Koraq told REL.
Fear of electoral manipulation
The election campaign has been accompanied by growing concerns about possible manipulation in Sunday’s vote. The Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe has found that around 500,000 people have registered to vote without a full address.
REL has also found that hundreds of voters have been registered at public facilities, including social work centers, as well as at homes where so many people could not live. Authorities have rejected these allegations.
Research has also highlighted an increase, before the vote, in the number of people with voting rights in Serbian elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo.
Ethnic Serbs in both countries are considered an important source of support for Vučić’s party.
The last elections in Serbia, held in 2023, were followed by numerous protests, after international observers reported irregularities, including busing voters in from neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina and intimidation of voters.
A bipartisan group of US senators called on Serbian authorities to ensure equal conditions for all election participants, citing “troubling signs” ahead of the October 25 vote.
A statement published on October 21 by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations mentioned reports of illegal surveillance of opposition members and efforts to discredit and obstruct election observation missions.
An independent forensic analysis by local and international experts has confirmed nearly 20 cases of the use of illegal surveillance software since the beginning of 2026.
The opposition and students accuse the authorities of these surveillance operations, while government officials deny that they are spying on their opponents.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has deployed 14 experts and 30 long-term observers for the elections in Serbia, while 300 short-term observers will join them on election day.
Change of power, continuity on Kosovo
The race between Vučić’s SNS and the Student List is expected to be close, but polls give different results.
Faktor Plus puts Vučić’s list ahead, with 48.6 percent against 37.1 percent for the students. Meanwhile, the Serbian political analysis and polling platform NSPM gives the latter the edge, with 44.4 percent against 41.7 percent.
For Kosovo, however, a change of power in Belgrade would not necessarily mean a change of stance on its statehood. As the students’ positions on foreign policy also show, opposition to Kosovo’s independence remains a common point between the two blocs.
In May, the student movement made this stance concrete through a memorandum, in which it described Kosovo as an “inalienable and constituent part” of Serbia.
According to Marko Savković, a associate at the Center for International and Security Affairs in Belgrade, opposition to Kosovo’s statehood did not begin with Vučić and is unlikely to end with him. He assesses that the political space for a fundamentally different approach to Kosovo’s status remains very limited.
“When it comes to opposing Kosovo’s statehood itself as a concept, this is certainly state policy, and some continuity can be expected here, regardless of who is in power in Serbia. Political options that accept the de facto situation, because Kosovo is de facto a state, are few and are on the political margins,” Savković says for Radio Free Europe’s Expose program./ REL/