Serbia election: Vučić concedes as early official count shows his list and the Student List neck and neck

Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat in Serbia’s parliamentary election late on Sunday, 25 October. He based this on a sample-based projection and not on the official count. The first official figures from the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) are partial and early. With 2,019 of 8,392 polling stations processed, about 24%, Vučić’s list and the student-backed Student List are almost level.

What Vučić said

Vučić spoke at the Belgrade headquarters of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The BBC quoted him as saying: “We still do not have final results… it is clear that we have lost these elections.” The Associated Press and The Guardian also reported his concession.

Euronews reported that he said “based on the stratified sample, it is clear that we have lost the election”. Euronews also quoted him as saying the Student List “will have between 135 and 140 seats, while we will have around 105” in the 250-seat parliament. According to Euronews, he said the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians had won three seats, the Albanian list one and, he thought, the SDA one. He also gave estimates of about 2.2 million votes for the Student List and about 1.72 million for his side. These figures are Vučić’s own projection. RIK has not published them, and it does not publish seat projections.

The official partial count

The RIK figures below were published at 22:00 GMT on 25 October (23:00 in Belgrade). They cover only 2,019 of 8,392 polling stations, and the percentages are of valid votes at those stations:

• Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia: 266,842 votes (45.36%)
• Student List – “Students Win”: 262,891 votes (44.69%)
• Ivica Dačić – Factor of Stability (SPS and partners): 15,417 votes (2.62%)
• Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians – Bálint Pásztor: 10,448 votes (1.78%)
• Albanian Coalition: 4,910 votes (0.83%)
• Authentic Right – Miloš Jovanović: 4,536 votes (0.77%)
• Rasim Ljajić – Ljudski (SDP–CDP): 3,374 votes (0.57%)
• Bogoljub Karić – Strength of Serbia Movement: 2,588 votes (0.44%)
• SDA Sandžak: 2,156 votes (0.37%)
• Usame Zukorlić (SPP) – Movement for Unification: 2,123 votes (0.36%)
• European Serbia – Marinika Tepić – Zdravko Ponoš: 1,393 votes (0.24%)
• The seven remaining lists each had fewer than 1,000 votes (under 0.2%).

At the processed stations, 588,411 people voted. There were 579,766 valid ballots and 8,447 invalid ballots (1.44%). RIK gives the national electorate as 6,451,292 registered voters.

The order of the two main lists may change as more stations report. Final official results, including the allocation of seats, will come from RIK.

Background

Serbians were electing all 250 members of the National Assembly from 18 lists. Vučić called the snap vote after two years of protests set off by the deadly 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad. For how the vote works and what the polls said, see our election preview.