People in Serbia will go to the polls tomorrow for early general elections

According to the information on the official website of the Serbian State Election Commission (RIK), 6 million 450 thousand 523 voters will vote in the election.

Voters will elect new members of the 250-seat Serbian National Assembly. Deputies will be elected according to the proportional representation system in a single constituency with a closed list method. The 3 percent electoral threshold will not be applied to national minority lists. 126 seats are needed to gain a majority in parliament.

The election will be held in the shadow of student protests that started after 16 people lost their lives as a result of the collapse of a concrete porch at the train station in Novi Sad city on November 1, 2024 and have been going on for about 2 years. The election will be the first national election in the country following protests that turned into a nationwide movement demanding prosecution of those responsible, transparency and early elections.

Aleksandar Vucic, who resigned from his post as president, signed the decision on the dissolution of the parliament in September and started the early election process.

Election Commission RIK announced 19 lists to participate in the election. With the withdrawal of one of the lists, there are 18 lists on the ballot. 9 of these lists are participating in the elections as national minorities.

First on the ballot is the "Aleksandar Vucic-United Serbia" list led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has been in power since 2012. In second place is the "Ivica Dacic-Stability Factor" list led by the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and in third place is the "Student List-Students Win" list, supported by students and ranked first by Ilija Srdanovic.

The lists "European Serbia: Marinika Tepic, Zdravko Ponos", "Authentic Right-Dr. Milos Jovanovic-New DSS-Monarchists", "Bogoljub Karic-Strength of Serbia Movement" and "Vladimir Gajic-Alternative for Serbia" will also compete in the election.

The minority lists include the "Rasim Ljajic-Human SDP/CDP", the "Unification Movement" of the Justice and Reconciliation Party (SPP) led by Osama Zukorlic, the "Guardians of Sandzak" lists of the Sandzak Democratic Action Party (SDA), as well as the Union of Hungarians of Vojvodina and the Albanian Coalition.

Public opinion polls indicate that the election race will be between the "United Serbia" list, where Vucic is the prime minister candidate, and the Student List. Recent polls indicate that the vote rates of the two lists are close.

Vucic said during the campaign that he would accept the election results and congratulate his opponents if they won.

The highest number of ballot boxes abroad were established in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Voting will start tomorrow at 07.00 local time and end at 20.00. Voting will be cast in a total of 8 thousand 392 ballot boxes across the country and abroad.

102 thousand 147 voters registered to vote abroad. The most ballot boxes outside Serbia were established in Bosnia and Herzegovina with 28 ballot boxes.

With the decision of RIK, polls abroad will also be open between 07.00-20.00 Central European time. Therefore, some voters in the Americas and Oceania will vote at night local time.

Observers from many countries and international organizations, especially the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), came to Serbia to follow the election process.

The last parliamentary election in Serbia was held in December 2023.