World News
Serbia's Vucic concedes defeat as the Student List wins a snap election on record turnout
By Staff Writer | 26 October 2026
Aleksandar Vucic told supporters in Belgrade on Sunday night that his party had lost the parliamentary election. A representative sample of the count gives the student-backed list 138 of the 250 seats.
Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat in Serbia's snap parliamentary election, ending more than a decade in which he and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) have governed the country. He made the announcement late on Sunday at the party's headquarters in Belgrade, before the final results had been published.
Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we lost these elections.
Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party
Vucic said the Student List would take between 135 and 140 seats and his party 105, and that no other list had entered parliament. A representative sample by the CeSID and Ipsos pollsters put the students' list at 138 deputies and the SNS at 104 in the 250-seat assembly, with the remaining seats shared among parties representing national minorities.
CeSID and Ipsos put turnout at 67.6 per cent by 7pm local time, the highest since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1992.
A record day at the polls
Long queues formed outside polling stations across the country on Sunday, with some voters reporting waits of up to two hours. The independent monitor CRTA recorded turnout of 41.1 per cent by 1pm, against 26.6 per cent at the same stage of the December 2023 parliamentary election. By 6pm, the director of the national statistics office, Branko Josipovic, told a press conference that 64.89 per cent of voters had cast their ballots.
Celebrations began in the streets of the capital as soon as Vucic had spoken, with people dancing and chanting "victory", cars sounding their horns and fireworks set off near the election commission. Radomir Sajcic, a professor at Belgrade University who spoke for the students at their headquarters, told supporters: "Tonight we celebrate victory, tomorrow we build the future."
From a station canopy to a general election
The vote traces back to November 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. Students began blockades and marches demanding accountability for the disaster, and teachers, farmers and others later joined them. Almost two years of demonstrations followed.
The SNS won the parliamentary election of 2012 and has led every government since. Vucic became prime minister in 2014 and president in 2017. After calling the snap election last month, he stepped down as president to stand for prime minister; his second presidential term was due to end in May 2027 and the constitution bars a third.
The Student List fielded 250 candidates for the 250 seats, from academics to athletes and farmers. It is headed by a cardiologist, Ilija Srdanovic, who is neither the movement's leader nor its candidate for prime minister. Casting his vote in Novi Sad, he said he hoped the day would pass peacefully and that a new government would be elected legitimately.
Serbia is a candidate for membership of the European Union. Final results from the election commission are still to come.