Serbia’s student movement is taking its anti-corruption campaign to voters’ doorsteps before the Oct. 25 parliamentary election, challenging the SNS-led governing coalition.
A Sept. 15 decision by the Republic Electoral Commission cleared “Student List – Students Win” for the contest to fill 250 parliamentary seats. Since 2012, power has remained with a coalition of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia, election monitors said. Former President Aleksandar Vučić resigned Sept. 27 and now leads an SNS-backed ballot list.
In Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb, student volunteers used a phone app to record which homes they had visited and how residents responded, The Guardian reported. The newspaper said residents raised concerns about corruption, a bridge in poor condition and sewage problems.
The movement emerged after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people. Its demands for accountability and the rule of law developed into a call for an early election, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The student list’s 11-point program calls for public contracts to be disclosed and state projects reviewed.
University assemblies helped choose candidates from professions including education and farming, The Guardian and The Associated Press reported. University of Belgrade assistant professor and student-list candidate Milica Jovanović told The Guardian that the candidates’ professional backgrounds mattered despite their limited political experience. Former minister Gordana Čomić questioned the movement’s claimed reach in rural areas, the newspaper reported.
Representatives of the ruling majority received 75% of the airtime allocated to political actors on the national television channels it monitored Sept. 21-27, the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) found. Opposition representatives received 25%. ODIHR reported that some election contestants and civil society groups pointed to a disproportionate campaign-resource advantage for the ruling party.
ODIHR’s interim report said the Republic Electoral Commission had met all legal deadlines for election preparations. It also said several recommendations from earlier elections remain unaddressed, including those concerning voter intimidation and pressure and certain aspects of misuse of state resources.
Voting is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25. The Voter Registration Audit Commission is due to issue its first report Oct. 28, ODIHR said.
