Overview
- Polling stations are open and early returns are expected hours after polls close in a contest that opinion surveys show is narrowly balanced between Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party and the Student List.
- An Ipsos poll published shortly before voting put the SNS at 47 percent and the students at 40 percent, though other polls have shown different leaders and the outcome remains uncertain.
- The student campaign grew from mass protests after a 2024 Novi Sad train station canopy collapse that killed 16 people and has since pushed anti‑corruption and education reform onto the national agenda.
- Rights bodies and a Council of Europe delegation have reported worsening repression and hostile rhetoric toward opponents, and international criticism has strained Belgrade’s ties with the EU.
- A student victory would force structural changes to a system critics say favors the incumbent through a politicized judiciary and media, while a Vucic win would keep his platform of public spending and close ties with China and Russia in place.