Students win the parliamentary elections in Serbia

Belgrade“We will win, and I can't wait,” said Jovana, an electrical engineering student at the University of Belgrade and part of the Serbian student movement, a few days ago. This Sunday, Serbia chose the composition of its Parliament in the most important elections since the nineties. Since before the polls opened at seven in the morning, thousands of people were queuing at the doors of the polling stations. The turnout was 69.1%, the highest in the decade.

The fact is that these elections were the opportunity to remove Aleksandar Vucic and his party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), from power after more than a decade. And so it has been. Shortly before ten at night, the man who had been the strongman of Serbia until now acknowledged his defeat: "We do not have results. Many will be surprised and will understand that some lied. Based on the stratified sample, it is evident that we have lost these elections." Vucic himself acknowledged that the Students will obtain between 135 and 140 seats out of the 250 that the Parliament of Serbia has.

"I am very proud of this youth; they will change Serbia. Well, they have already changed Serbia," said a voter, Zorica, at the Jovan Miodragovic polling station, after voting for the Students' List. This list, which arises from the student movement that has been demonstrating in the streets against the corruption of the Vucic government for two years, has not presented itself as a conventional party, but as a citizen platform. Without faces, with a horizontal structure and with a program focused on the fight against corruption, and in favor of transparency and accountability.

Some irregularities

The election day passed without incident, although numerous irregularities were reported in various polling stations, such as problems ensuring the secret ballot, photographs of ballots, group voting, or difficulties with the electoral roll. For example, the organization CRTA, which acted as an observer, reported that it had detected photographs of ballots in a significant number of the polling stations it was monitoring. Vucic had offered money to voters who voted for his party. That is why the ballots were photographed, to corroborate that those who had promised to vote for him had done so.

"We are deeply concerned about the violent incidents reported in several polling stations. Serbian citizens need to be able to exercise their democratic right to vote in a peaceful and safe environment," declared the European Union ambassador to Serbia, Jürgen von Beckerath, in the face of disturbances that also occurred in some places. In fact, during the final hours of voting, police forces were mobilized and many streets were blocked due to fears of possible disturbances once the result was made official. The Students' platform itself warned "all citizens of Belgrade not to gather near places where a greater presence of police and non-uniformed persons has been noted. Safely, peacefully and with dignity until the end".

The fear of possible unrest also caused most commercial establishments to remain closed in the capital. "On our part, there will be no violence. We are organized and never in these two years have we been violent," said Katarina Scepanovic, one of the candidates of the Students' List, last Thursday. And so it has been.

At ten at night, the Students' List was already celebrating victory at its headquarters in Belgrade, and celebrations were beginning in many parts of the capital. Now the Students have an arduous task ahead of them: to make a reality of what they have been demanding for the last two years. "The issue is to enact laws to end corruption and the corrupt system, and to place the right people in those places where institutions are weak – and almost all of them are. We must reinforce and strengthen the institutions with real people," said Scepanovic regarding the possibility of forming a government.

Now, the Students will have to clean up the institutions and regain the trust of the Serbian population. After two years of demonstrating in the streets, the Students have achieved it: they have ended the hegemony of Aleksandar Vucic.