Serbia election: Student List wins a majority in first projection, Vučić concedes
The student-led "Student List – Students Win" won 52.1% of the vote and 138 of the 250 seats in Serbia's snap parliamentary election, according to the first projection by Ipsos and CeSID. Aleksandar Vučić's list is projected at 39.3% and 104 seats. Vučić conceded on Sunday night and crowds celebrated in Belgrade.
Serbia's student protest movement is on course for an outright majority in parliament after Sunday's snap election, according to the first projection released after polls closed. The "Student List – Students Win" took 52.1% of the vote, which would give it 138 of the 250 seats, well above the 126 needed to govern alone.
The figures come from the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) and the polling agency Ipsos, which base their projection on a sample of polling stations. They are not official results. The list "Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia" is projected at 39.3% and 104 seats.
Shortly afterwards, Aleksandar Vučić conceded, The Guardian reported. He said he expected the Student List to have a majority in the new parliament and that his Serbian Progressive Party would end up with about 105 seats. Earlier in the day he had told reporters that if his side lost, it would concede.
The result reverses an Ipsos poll published on 22 October, commissioned by Vučić's list, which had put it on 47.4% against 40% for the students. Turnout was unusually high: Ipsos and CeSID projected it at 67.6% by 7pm, well above the previous election in 2023.
News of the concession set off celebrations in central Belgrade, where people poured into the streets and drivers sounded their horns. The vote followed almost two years of student-led protests and a final rally on Thursday that filled the capital's Slavija Square.
The day was not without tension. The election monitoring group CRTA complained that access to the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) had been blocked by police, and a polling station in Leskovac stayed open late after scuffles. The RIK will publish the official preliminary results as the count goes on.