Students won in Serbia, but most Serbian voters from Kosovo chose Vučić

The early parliamentary elections on October 25 ended Aleksandar Vučić’s 14-year rule in Serbia, but they did not bring a similar shift in the preferences of Kosovo Serbs. Of those who voted, more than two-thirds chose his list.

The final results from the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) give the Student List 140 of the 250 seats in parliament, after it won 53.01 percent of the vote in Serbia. The “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” list secured 103 seats with 38.98 percent.

Votes cast by people from Kosovo show a lead in the opposite direction: 25,660 voters, approximately 72 percent, backed Vučić’s list, while 7,353, or 20.6 percent, voted for the Student List. Ivica Dačić’s Socialist Party received 1,170 votes from Kosovo, almost half its 2023 total. Nationwide, the party failed to cross the electoral threshold.

Voters traveled outside Kosovo

To cast their ballots, Kosovo Serbs once again had to leave their places of residence. Kosovo’s institutions have not allowed Serbian polling stations to open on its territory since 2022. RIK therefore made 60 polling stations available in Raška, Ribarić in Tutin, Kuršumlija and Vranje. Many voters traveled up to 120 kilometers, mostly on organized trips by bus and car.

Turnout among voters from Kosovo reached about 35.5 percent, compared with 25.4 percent in 2023. Despite the increase, it was still nearly half the average in Serbia, where 68.89 percent of voters cast ballots—the highest turnout recorded in a parliamentary election this century.

Competition between the two lists centered on the north

The differences are clearer in the municipality-level results. In its analysis, the Belgrade-based outlet Savremena politika identifies the north as the only part of Kosovo where the figures show genuine competition between the two alternatives. This area includes North Mitrovica, Zvečan, Leposavić and Zubin Potok.

The north accounted for 61 percent of all votes for the Student List in Kosovo. In North Mitrovica, Zvečan and Leposavić, the list won approximately one-third of the vote. Meanwhile, turnout across the north rose from 27.4 to 42.4 percent, while support for Vučić’s list fell from 72.5 to 65.2 percent. Zubin Potok was the only northern municipality where his list increased its vote share.

Strong support for Vučić in central and eastern Kosovo

In central and eastern Kosovo, Serbian voters made a markedly different choice. In Pristina, Fushë Kosovë, Obiliq, Lipjan, Vushtrri, Shtërpcë and the municipalities of Anamorava, Vučić’s list won 82.3 percent of the vote. This area accounted for 60 percent of all the votes his list received in Kosovo. Novobërda recorded the highest turnout in Kosovo, at 66.52 percent.

The Student List’s results in this area were weak. Its strongest showing was in Pristina, where it won 16.7 percent, while in Novobërda it received just 6.5 percent. In Shtërpcë, 2,753 people voted, up from 660 in 2023—a fourfold increase in participation. Almost all of that increase translated into support for Vučić’s list, which received 2,105 votes.

Minimal turnout in the west and south

Across the group of municipalities comprising Peja, Istog, Klina, Rahovec, Prizren, Dragash, Skënderaj and Ferizaj, turnout fell from 11.5 to 9.2 percent. Only ten people voted in Prizren, while fewer than 300 voted in Gorë, despite more than 6,000 registered voters.

Peja was the only place in Kosovo where Vučić’s list did not finish first. There, Dačić’s Socialists won 47.4 percent of the vote, ahead of United Serbia with 34.9 percent and the Student List with 13 percent.

Rising vote totals and positions on Kosovo

Compared with the 2023 election, Vučić’s list received about 48 percent more votes in Kosovo. This time, the Serbian Radical Party also ran as part of the list. The increase in votes did not bring a significant change in its share, which remained at approximately 72 percent.

The main change concerned the Student List: it received more than three times as many votes as all the opposition lists combined had won in the previous election. In that election, the opposition received a total of 2,370 votes.

Before the election, Vučić had received the public backing of the Serbian List, the main political force representing Serbs in Kosovo. The new winners in Belgrade, meanwhile, emerged from the student movement, which had described Kosovo as a “constituent part of Serbia” in an earlier memorandum. However, the students made no mention of Kosovo or the European Union in their election platform.