Vučić concedes defeat as Serbia's Student List leads preliminary count

A shift in power after 14 years

Serbia's parliamentary election ended the 14-year dominance of the Serbian Progressive Party, according to Stirile ProTV. Aleksandar Vučić, the party's founder, acknowledged defeat on Sunday, 25 October, in the evening, before the votes had been fully counted. He said the sample results showed that his side had lost and that the Student List had won.

“We do not yet have the final results, but based on a sample, it is clear that we have lost these elections. The Student List has won.”

Vučić's own estimates put the Student List at up to 140 of the 250 seats in parliament, which would give it an absolute majority.

Preliminary results

By Monday morning, 26 October, the Student List led with 52.52% of valid votes, against 40.30% for the alliance led by Vučić. Those figures were based on 92.58% of polling stations counted. The gap between the two lists stood at about 471,000 votes. Ivica Dačić's list placed third with 2.26%. These are preliminary figures, and the final tally was not yet available in the articles.

Student List52.52%

Alliance led by Vučić40.3%

Ivica Dačić's list2.26%

Student List

52.52 %

Alliance led by Vučić

40.3 %

Ivica Dačić's list

2.26 %

Data from the article text

Celebrations and surprise in Belgrade

Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Belgrade after the concession, and this time they were celebrating rather than protesting, according to ProTV. The Guardian, cited by G4Media, reported that some of those present were still surprised by the outcome. Romanian President Nicușor Dan posted congratulations to the Serbian people on X, praising the turnout as the highest in decades and congratulating the Student List on its win.

“Romania is ready to cooperate with the new government for Serbia's European path and a stable and prosperous neighbourhood.”

Dan also said the two countries, linked by long-standing friendship along the Danube, could build an even stronger partnership.

Paid Facebook ads and a Romanian link

A BBC investigation found that 56 Facebook pages ran at least 91 ads on Meta platforms between mid-September and mid-October 2026. The ads did not disclose who paid for them, although Meta rules require that for political advertising. Many of the pages were created around 9-10 September, when the election campaign was announced, and used innocuous names such as pages about coffee-break conversation topics. Spending on the analysed ads reached at least 29,437 lei by 16 October, and the payments were made in Romanian currency.

The BBC identified more than 800 short videos from these pages, some with millions of views despite accounts that had only dozens or about a hundred followers. Many targeted student movement leaders and opposition candidates with accusations for which no evidence was shown. Sam Jeffers of the transparency group Who Targets Me said paid promotion can greatly extend a message's reach and allow it to be aimed at specific groups of people.

The BBC traced three ads to Bmobile SRL, a company based in Dolj county and owned by Andrei Bușe, which appeared as both payer and advertiser. Meta removed those ads because they had not been declared as political content. G4Media's analysis of Meta data found that 56 of 165 pages running political ads in Serbia over the last 30 days were unattributed, and that nearly 169,000 euros had been paid to promote them.

Denials and a local councillor

Victor Ponta, a former prime minister and presidential candidate, denied any link to the campaign, telling G4Media: "I know nothing about this subject." G4Media reported that Bmobile had also run unattributed political ads for Ponta's 2025 campaign worth more than 600,000 lei. Ponta had been an honorary adviser to Vučić and received Serbian citizenship in 2018, which he said in March 2025 he would give up.

Cozmin Dinu, an AUR county councillor in Buzău, was identified in the propaganda videos, according to Ziare.com. Dinu, a former image editor at the company that owns the 60M network of websites, denied having agreed to the videos.

“I am an actor by profession. At one point I filmed several videos. Maybe that is how the footage got to Serbia.”