In early parliamentary elections in Serbia, high voter turnout has been registered by noon, while reporting on irregularities.
According to the Republican Election Commission, 34.55 percent voted by 12: 00 a.m., while long lines have been seen before polling stations.
This is the highest voter exit compared to the 2023 elections, when by the same time, 21.33 percent had voted.
Meanwhile, the election observer mission, Crta, reported that by 1: 00 p.m., 41.1 percent of the total number of voters have voted. By the same time in the 2023 elections, the exit was 26.6 percent.
Even in early morning hours, voter turnout was higher than in the preliminary vote.
From Cpta, they said earlier that voter turnout is just outside the historic trend. Rasa Nedelko from this mission reported irregularities, stressing that a total of 14 percent of procedural irregularities have been recorded by noon.
Among the irregularities is the photographing of balloting, problems with spray, and ultraviolet lamps and other irregularities.
In this election, third parliamentary in the past five years, a student movement derived from a civic initiative is aiming to end Aleksandar Vuciqi’s 14-year power and the Serbian Progressive Party ( SNS).
According to the CRTA monitoring mission, the polls across Serbia opened mainly on time. Meanwhile, the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy ( CeSID announced that by 0900 hours more than 70 irregularities were reported during the vote.
According to the organisation, cases of ballot photos, phone use, out-of-door voting and family voting have been recorded, including a report that one voter has voted on behalf of another person.
Serbian police have intervened in a Novi Sad neighbourhood, where citizens gathered. Some said they saw people with money and envelopes. Meanwhile, the Certa organisation said six men and a woman prevented an observer from standing in front of a polling station, insulting him.
Conflicts have also been reported among members of polling councils, temporary suspension of voting, incidents and threats against voters, as well as problems with electoral material and voter verification.
Especially disturbing is preventing the approach of observers. In some polls, observers are not allowed access, so we must contact the responsible authorities and intervene so that they can do their job, CeSID said.
The polling is open between 7:00 and Serbia’s citizens can vote until 8:00. Voter rights have 6,450,523 citizens. The vote is taking place at 8.392 locations, of which 93 are located abroad.
Vuciq resigned from office of president in late September. Since he cannot run for a third term, he now intends to become prime minister, the post he held from 2014 until he was elected president in 2017.
However, the election campaign has been coupled with increasingly serious concerns that there may be electoral manipulations.
The elections are closely followed by the European Union, which has criticised Serbia for turning to democracy under Vuciqi’s leadership.
Untrusted Results
In a climate of deep divisions and social tensions, the Serbian Progressive Party ( Vuciqi’s SNS aims to retain power after two years of mass anti-government and corruption protests across the country.
But for the first time in many years, she faces a real challenger: The Student List, a movement emerged from these protests.
These are the first elections in more than a decade whose outcome is really very uncertain, Free Europe ( REL) Vladimir Bilchik, former European Parliament reporter for Serbia.
Polls so far show that the electorate in Serbia is largely divided among those supporting a broad coalition built around the ruling party and those supporting the student movement.
Students do not have formal leaders, while their electoral list consists of nonparty figures, most of which are university professors.
On November 1, 2024, the collapse of the rebuilt shelter of the city’s railway station caused the death of 16 people. Allegations of corruption in the work of one of the main government projects, led by Chinese companies, led by protesters across the country.
The government denied the accusations, while protesters faced police violence and arrests. One of the most serious incidents occurred on March 15, 2025, when authorities allegedly used a sound weapon illegally against peaceful demonstrators.
Vuciq in front of Student List
Over 6.4 million eligible citizens will elect between 2.418 candidates for the 250 seats in Parliament. However, the race is expected to take place mainly between Vuciqi’s party and the Student List.
In its centre are the continuation of Vuciqi’s policies, including close ties with Russia and China, and the student’s commitment to fighting corruption.
Some American lawmakers have warned that Moscow could 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, print and prevent Serbia’s citizens, as well as the powerful student movement that wants to restore rule of law in the country, told REL’s Republican Congressman Joe Wilson.
In addition to close ties with Russia, Serbia’s main gas supplier, Vuciqi has tried to strengthen relations with China, a major investor in the country, while simultaneously maintaining the long-standing goal for membership in the European Union. He has also been aiming to improve reports 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 the invasion of Ukraine, despite EU calls.
The student movement, meanwhile, has left foreign policy in the second plan. However, it has rejected sanctions against Russia and has reiterated support for Belgrade’s official stance against recognising Kosovo’s independence.
This shows that even students are unable to escape the trap of Serbia’s nationalist policy, which is built on the myth of Kosovo, Belgrade professor Zarko Koraz told REL.
Droja for election manipulation
The election campaign has been accompanied by growing concerns of possible manipulations in Sunday’s vote. The Balkan Radio Free Europe Service has found that around 500,000 people are registered to vote without a full address.
REL has also found that hundreds of voters are registered in public objects, including social work centres, as well as in homes where so many could not live. Authorities have dismissed these charges.
Research also highlighted the increase, prior to the vote, of the number of eligible people in the Serbian elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Ethnic Serbs in both countries are considered an important source of support for Vuciki’s party.
The recent elections in Serbia, held in 2023, were followed by numerous protests, as international observers reported irregularities, including bus transport of voters from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and intimidation of voters.
A two-party group of US senators has called on Serbian authorities to provide equal conditions for all participants in the election, referring to the disturbing talks prior to the October 25th vote.
The declaration, issued on 21 October by the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, cited illegal wiretapping reports of opposition members and attempts to discredit and obstruct election monitoring missions.
An independent forensic analysis by local and international experts has confirmed nearly 20 cases of use of illegal surveillance programmes since the beginning of 2026.
The opposition and students accuse authorities of such wiretapping, while government officials deny they are spying on their opponents.
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights ( O The DIHR has hired 14 experts and 30 long-term observers for elections in Serbia, while on the day of the vote, 300 short-term observers will join.
Power change, continuation of Kosovo
The race between Vuciqi’s SNS and the Student List is expected to be tight, but polls yield different results.
The fact that Plus puts the Vuciki list forward, with 48.6 percent versus 37.1 percent for students. Meanwhile, Serbian platforms for political analysis and polls, NSPM gives the latter an advantage of 44.4 percent versus 41.7 percent.
For Kosovo, however, changing power in Belgrade would not necessarily imply a change of attitude towards its citizenship. As students’ positions on foreign policy show, Kosovo’s independence opposition remains a common point between the two blocs.
In May, the student movement concreteised this stance through a memorandum, in which it called Kosovo an invisibility and constituent part of Serbia.
According to Marko Savkoviki, associate of the Centre for International Affairs and Security in Belgrade, the rejection of Kosovo’s citizenship did not start with Vucinqi and is unlikely to end with it. He estimates that the political space for a substantial other approach to Kosovo’s status remains very limited.
When it comes to rejecting Kosovo’s own citizenship as a concept, it is certainly state policy, and here some continuation can be expected, whoever is in power in Serbia. Political options that accept the situation de facto, because Kosovo de facto is state, are few, are in political margins, Savkovic says of Radio Free Europe’s Expose programme. / REL
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