Serbia's Vucic concedes parliamentary election to student-led movement

Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat on Sunday in Serbia's parliamentary election to a student-led opposition movement, Reuters, Bloomberg and other outlets reported. At his party's election-night event, he said the Students' List had won. The vote pitted his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, known as SNS, against a movement that had spent almost two years protesting his government. [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]

Vucic said his party projected that the Students' List would take between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, while SNS would have around 105. He put SNS's vote total at about 1.7 million, compared with around 2.2 million for the Students' List. The figures were presented as his statements and party projections. CBS reported that he announced the outcome about an hour and a half after polls closed. [ 11 , 12 ]

Supporters of the Students' List gathered in the streets of Belgrade and other Serbian cities, honking horns and chanting after the concession. The Seattle Times' AP report said crowds dismantled fences and tents at a central Belgrade park where Vucic's loyalists had camped for more than a year. CBS reported that police in anti-riot gear had cordoned off an area around election commission headquarters as tensions built during voting. [ 5 , 11 ]

Serbia's 6.4 million voters were choosing lawmakers from 18 competing parties, according to AP reporting carried by The Boston Globe. Local monitors said turnout in the first three hours was more than twice the level at the 2023 parliamentary election. The student movement accused the government of corruption and dismantling democracy. Vucic, whose party took office 14 years ago, blamed independent media and alleged foreign interference for his defeat. [ 7 , 11 ]