Serbia election: Vučić concedes defeat to student-backed movement
Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat in the Serbia election on Sunday, telling supporters at his party headquarters in Belgrade that preliminary results showed he had lost to the student-backed movement.
Serbia election: Vučić concedes defeat to student-backed movement
Concession at party headquarters
Speaking at his party headquarters in Belgrade on Sunday, Aleksandar Vučić admitted defeat in Serbia's parliamentary election, basing his assessment on preliminary results.
"Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we lost these elections"
The concession hands the vote to the grassroots student movement that fielded candidates against his Serbian Progressive party.
Record turnout and long lines
Pollsters and monitors CeSID and Ipsos put turnout at 67.6% by 7pm local time on election day. That was the highest turnout since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.
- Some voters reported waiting in lines for up to two hours at polling stations
- Turnout stood at 67.6% by early evening, according to CeSID and Ipsos
- The week before the vote, an estimated 150,000 people attended the students' final pre-election rally in Belgrade
How the vote came about
The election stemmed from November 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station, killing 16 people. Evidence suggested that slipshod construction, fraud and corruption were to blame for the roof collapse, and the ensuing student protests grew into an anti-government movement.
Under pressure from the students, Vučić resigned the presidency last month and called snap elections. The movement announced a slate of 250 candidates for the 250-seat parliament, drawn from academics to athletes and farmers, campaigning against Vučić's rightwing Serbian Progressive party (SNS) under the slogan "Serbia or Mafia?".
Irregularities reported
International and local election monitors raised concerns before the vote about detentions and reports of surveillance and cyber-attacks against activists. Monitoring groups also warned of ballot photographing suggesting pressure on voters, attempted vote-buying and carousel voting on election day.
"a large number of irregularities continue to be recorded, while violent incidents outside polling stations are also becoming increasingly frequent"
The warning came from Raša Nedeljkov of the monitoring organisation CRTA.
Vučić's concession was based on preliminary results, with final results still to come.
