Serbia's Student List and Vucic Coalition Hold Final Rallies Before Sunday Vote

Serbia's election campaign closes on Thursday, October 22, with two final rallies in Belgrade, three days before a snap parliamentary election on Sunday, October 25. The Student List holds its closing rally at Slavija Square at 6 p.m., while the Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia coalition, led by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), holds its final rally in New Belgrade. Campaign silence begins at midnight and runs until polling stations close at 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Students walk into the capital

On the evening of October 21, crowds in central Belgrade greeted processions of university students who had spent several days walking to the capital from across the country. Three columns arriving from the north, west and east, joined by members of the public and some Student List candidates, converged in front of the University of Belgrade Rectorate. Supporters met them with fireworks, trumpets and applause, chanting "Victory" and "Goodbye, Vucic." The city centre was closed to traffic for the gathering, the Beta news agency reported.

A movement born from a disaster

The election comes nearly two years after a canopy collapsed at Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, killing 16 people. Protests demanding accountability and action against corruption grew into a student-led movement that now fields its own electoral list. Under the movement's rules, the candidates are not current students. They were picked through student assemblies and come mainly from academic and professional backgrounds, with institutional accountability and the fight against corruption at the centre of the campaign.

Aleksandar Vucic resigned as president on September 27 to contest the election and is seeking a government post if his coalition wins. His SNS has been in power since 2012 and runs a nationwide organisation, but it now faces a challenger with wide public support outside the established party system. Reuters reported this week that the student movement is the biggest political challenge Vucic has faced in his 12 years in power, and that its list fields 250 candidates for Sunday.

Polls point to a close race

A poll by New Serbian Political Thought, published on October 20, puts the Student List at 44.5 percent and the United Serbia coalition at 42.7 percent among voters who named a preference. The telephone survey of 1,050 people ran from September 25 to October 5, and 18.3 percent of respondents named no preference or declined to answer. A September poll by Faktor Plus gave the governing coalition a lead of 48.6 percent to 37.1 percent, so the outcome is hard to call.

In all, 18 electoral lists are competing for the 250 seats in the National Assembly, and 126 seats are needed for an outright majority. Smaller lists sit below the 3 percent electoral threshold in the NSPM poll, which could make the voters of those lists decisive when seats are shared out. There are 6,450,523 registered voters and 8,392 polling stations, including 93 abroad. The OSCE election observation mission has recorded allegations of unequal media access, misuse of state resources and pressure on activists during the campaign, and questions about the independence of the media regulator. Turnout may settle it: in the NSPM survey, 79.8 percent of respondents said they would definitely vote.