By Misha Savic | Updated on Oct 07, 2026 at 05:48 PM
Allegations of unfair election conditions are rife in Serbia ahead of an Oct. 25 snap ballot for parliament in which the Balkan nation’s dominant politician Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Progressive Party face their biggest challenge in more than a decade since coming to power.
Authorities loyal to the long-serving strongman and his party are allegedly obstructing voting by Serbia’s large diaspora, after some 106,000 citizens living abroad registered to cast ballots in the race for the nation’s 250-seat parliament, according to student-led opposition group the Student List. It urged the US, the European Union and human rights organizations to press the government in Belgrade to amend the perceived shortcomings.
“If Serbia is to preserve democratic legitimacy and lasting stability, its elections must first be genuinely accessible, equal and credible to all citizens, including those living abroad,” the Student List said in a statement Wednesday.
It alleged that the election commission agreed to open only 93 polling stations in foreign countries – typically in Serbian embassies and consulates – less than the 120 sites Student List says are required to enable most expats to cast votes.
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The nascent opposition group has grown out of a student-led protest movement that led anti-government rallies across Serbia since a deadly train station incident in late 2024 left 16 dead. Some opinion surveys indicate that the Student List, which promises to undo Vucic’s control over public institutions, the judiciary and the media, may win the election race.
Serbia’s Foreign Ministry, which helps coordinate voting abroad, dismissed the allegations as ”malicious activity,” as the number of polling stations abroad is bigger this time than the 81 sites in Serbia’s previous parliamentary elections in 2023. Serbia’s diaspora is estimated to total over 4 million people.
Turnout is expected to be high in the upcoming vote, bigger than the 3.8 million ballots cast last time among more than 6 million eligible voters, according to polls.
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The Austria-based Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, or OSCE, is sending its election monitoring mission to Serbia, as it did during earlier votes. In 2023, its report found irregularities such as an unfair advantage for the ruling party. The outcome of that election was eventually accepted as Vucic’s Progressives won by a landslide.
Opposition representatives will be deployed at all polling stations in Serbia, said Sanja Belic, a candidate on the Student List. She expects they will win the vote “even though irregularities will be even more intense than in the last elections.”
“Elections are becoming a high-risk situation,” said Rasa Nedeljkov who heads the Belgrade-based Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability. The campaign is already marked by “numerous irregularities and acts of obstruction, and a similar scenario awaits us over the next 20 days or so,” he said.
Vucic and his party deny the allegations and accuse opponents of being part of an underhand, foreign-funded attempt to destabilize the country.
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