Arabic version: الأرقام الأولية تشير إلى إقبال قياسي في انتخابات صربيا

According to BBC News, preliminary figures from Serbia’s election commission indicated that 64.9% of voters had cast ballots by 18:00 local time, two hours before polls were due to close, suggesting record-high turnout in the parliamentary election.

The snap vote follows two years of student protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a train station canopy that killed 16 people. The Student List, an anti-corruption movement, is seeking to end the rule of Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has been in power since 2012.

Long queues were reported at polling stations in cities and towns across Serbia and abroad, including Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles, Chicago and Paris. Commentators have suggested that final turnout of 65% or more would favour the students.

CRTA, an independent watchdog, reported a large number of irregularities and an increasing number of violent incidents outside polling stations. AFP reported that police had not confirmed any major election-related violence. Police closed streets around the Republic Electoral Commission in Belgrade.

Vučić, 56, has served two terms as president and cannot seek a third. He is leading the SNS in an effort to return as prime minister, a post he left in 2017. The Student List has put forward 250 candidates, led by Novi Sad University professor Ilija Srdanović.