Serbia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, October 25, delivered a historic political earthquake. The Student List movement successfully challenged the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which had dominated the country’s political landscape for 14 years under outgoing President Aleksandar Vučić.
The election marked a dramatic turning point, with the Student List securing a decisive victory by capturing 52.45 percent of the vote and 138 seats in the National Assembly. In contrast, the Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia list received 39.2 percent of the vote, earning 103 seats.
The student movement’s journey began in the wake of the tragic collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, which claimed 16 lives and sparked nationwide protests against corruption. Initially a non-partisan grassroots movement, it gradually garnered immense public support before ultimately deciding to field its own electoral list. Rather than seeking office themselves, the students nominated highly qualified individuals with no prior political experience, selected through a democratic process organized within universities.
Accept
Manage my choices
‘We trained at least 16,000 people to become official controllers’
Petar Botoski, an agricultural student supporting the Student List, was in Novi Sad, a city in northern Serbia, when President Aleksandar Vučić acknowledged his party’s defeat.
“It was the most challenging moment. We expected to win, but we did not know what would happen next. When the announcement came, I was in shock, everyone was cheering. At that time, the votes were still being transferred and being counted.”
He explained that the student movement actively prevented widespread electoral fraud throughout the day, reporting incidents such as the discovery of parallel voter lists or carousel voting to the authorities. Parallel lists involve unofficial voter registers used alongside official ones to manipulate voting records, while carousel voting is a fraudulent practice where a voter is given an already-marked ballot, casts it, and then presents an unmarked ballot as proof of voting as instructed.
Petar Botoski goes on:
“For a year and a half, since we decided to propose a student list for the legislative elections, the student movement spent a lot of time and resources to create connections between people and to teach them how to prevent electoral fraud.
We trained at least 16,000 people to become official controllers, two for each polling station. Then we trained about five people per polling station to be part of mobile teams. Their mission was to detect fraud outside the polling stations, such as the use of parallel lists, carousel voting, paying for votes, and intimidation. Tracking fraud had for sure an impact on the results.”
Voter turnout reached an impressive 69 percent, with over 4.4 million citizens casting their ballots. This represents a significant increase compared to the 55.5 percent turnout recorded in Serbia’s December 2023 parliamentary elections, reflecting the heightened public engagement and trust in the electoral process.
Accept
Manage my choices
‘We ensured that it was harder for them to fraud’
Janko Sikosek, a member of the “Bikers with Students” movement, was among the volunteers who assisted in monitoring polling stations and helping to ensure a fair and transparent electoral process.
“I went out to vote early in the morning; the line was already forming before the polling station opened. At this moment, I felt very optimistic. People were looking at each other and smiling. The line was so long, I waited for an hour and a half to vote.
Then I joined my mobile team. Only in my municipality (Vozdovac), there were 14 mobile teams, each one composed of three people.
We were there to record, to observe, to be present. We ensured that it was harder for them (SNS supporters) to commit fraud.
The job of my team of bikers was to help mobile teams that got into trouble. One mobile team discovered a vote-buying headquarters in Ovča, in the north of Belgrade. One member of the mobile team was hit on the head, the other two escaped, but their car was trapped. When we intervened, a couple of our guys got hurt. One received a strike on the head with a rock and the other had his arm broken. But we managed to get the mobile team out of there.”
Accept
Manage my choices
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
Try again