# Serbia votes on whether to end Vucic's 14-year rule

> A student-led movement challenges the ruling party in a snap election that will test whether Serbia can reset its democratic institutions.
- Title: Serbia votes on whether to end Vucic's 14-year rule | Shortify
- Summary: A student-led movement challenges the ruling party in a snap election that will test whether Serbia can reset its democratic institutions. Serbia holds a…
- Keywords: serbia, aleksandar vucic, serbian progressive party, student protests, snap election, democratic reform, european union, kosovo, news, world, politics, votes
- Source: Al Jazeera — https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/23/serbias-snap-election-whats-at-stake-and-can-students-unseat-vucic?traffic_source=rss
- Author: Mario Pejovic
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: serbia, aleksandar vucic, serbian progressive party, student protests, snap election, democratic reform, european union, kosovo, news, world, politics
## Serbia votes on October twenty-fifth
Serbia will hold a snap parliamentary election on October twenty-fifth. The vote tests whether President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party can extend its fourteen-year grip on power against a student-led movement.
## Novi Sad collapse sparked nationwide protests
In November two thousand twenty-four, a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in Novi Sad, killing sixteen people.Demands for accountability grew into a nationwide movement against alleged corruption and government handling of the tragedy.
## Students became the movement's driving force
Students emerged as the movement's driving force, organising some of Serbia's biggest demonstrations since the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic.
## Vucic resigned to lead SNS campaign
The parliamentary election was not due until late two thousand twenty-seven. But Vucic resigned from the presidency in September, ahead of the end of his second and final constitutional term, and is leading the Serbian…
## Student List challenges with fresh faces
The main challenger is the student-backed Student List, Students Win, which brings together candidates with little or no previous political experience, including academics, teachers and other professionals.
## Young voters mobilised after decades of disengagement
Young people, long considered Serbia's most politically disengaged group, have become the core of its largest social mobilisation in decades.

> The political dynamic has changed from the ground up.
## Turnout will decide the outcome
The Serbian Progressive Party retains a disciplined core electorate, supported by a clientelist model of government.The student list must unite opposition-minded voters and mobilise habitual non-voters and the undecided.Turnout will be decisive, Vasiljevic said.
## A new government faces institutional rebuilding
Winning power would be only the beginning. Srdan Majstorovic, chair of the governing board of the European Policy Centre, said a new government would face the far harder task of rebuilding a democratic system after…
## Foreign policy remains the biggest unknown
Igor Bandovic, director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, said foreign policy remained the biggest unknown in the student list's programme.
## Polls close Sunday at eight pm local time
Voters will elect all two hundred fifty members of the National Assembly in a single nationwide constituency. Polls will close on Sunday at eight pm local time. Preliminary results are expected about two hours later.
## Key takeaway

Serbia holds a snap parliamentary election on October twenty-fifth as a student-backed movement challenges President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party, which has governed since two thousand twelve.