Serbia begins voting in snap parliamentary elections

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE (AA) - Polling stations opened in Serbia on Sunday for snap parliamentary elections, with 6.45 million registered voters eligible to elect 250 members to the National Assembly.

Eighteen electoral lists, fielding over 2,400 candidates, are competing, with voting taking place at nearly 8,400 polling stations nationwide.

Polling stations opened at 7 am local time and are scheduled to close at 8 pm in the Western Balkan country.

Domestic and international observers, including representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACEW, and the European Parliament, are monitoring the elections.

Serbians living abroad can also cast ballots at 93 polling stations in 37 countries, with more than 102,000 registered to vote overseas.

Four Serbian municipalities have designated an additional 60 polling stations for voters registered in neighboring Kosovo, where certain areas have large ethnic Serb populations.

- Ruling party faces student-backed challengers

The elections come amid months of student-led protests and a political crisis that led to President Aleksandar Vucic's resignation in September.

Vucic is seeking to return to government as prime minister through the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

The SNS, which has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, is competing under the electoral list “Aleksandar Vucic – United Serbia.”

Among its challengers is the student-backed “Student List – Students Win,” which emerged from protests following the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.

The student movement has demanded accountability for the disaster, greater transparency, and reforms to strengthen the rule of law and public institutions.

Other contenders include the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), led by Ivica Dacic, the pro-European European Serbia coalition, and the nationalist Authentic Right bloc.

- How parliamentary seats are allocated

Serbia uses a proportional representation system to elect its 250 lawmakers, distributing seats among electoral lists using the D’Hondt method.

Electoral lists generally need to secure at least 3% of the vote to enter parliament, while lists representing national minorities are exempt from the threshold.

A party or coalition needs at least 126 seats to secure a majority and form a government.

The Republic Electoral Commission is responsible for compiling and announcing the overall election results after receiving reports from polling stations.

The new parliament must be constituted within 30 days of the publication of final results, while a new government must be formed within 90 days of parliament’s constitution.

- Serbia’s political direction at stake

The elections are taking place against a backdrop of divisions over Serbia’s European integration, relations with Russia and China, and the unresolved dispute over neighboring Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.

Serbia is an EU candidate country but has maintained close ties with Moscow and has declined to join Western sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine.

The election outcome will determine the composition of the next parliament and which parties can secure the support needed to form a new government.

Sunday’s vote marks Serbia’s 15th parliamentary elections since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1990 and its 10th snap parliamentary elections.

The last parliamentary elections were held in December 2023.

Mustafa Talha Öztürk