Serbia's Student List Fills Belgrade With About 150,000 People Before Sunday's Snap Election

Supporters spoke of hope rather than certainty. Marija Nedeljkovic Radic, 47, told AFP she believed for the first time in her life that change is possible. Euronews, in a video report that day, showed thousands welcoming students who had travelled to the capital from across the country, many carrying signs reading "Students win!"

How close is the vote?

Nobody really knows. Serbia lacks reliable independent polling and surveys differ widely. Political scientist Dusan Vucicevic of Belgrade University told AFP he expects the students to take more than 40 percent, which would be more than any opposition list has won since Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party took power in 2012. ANSA reported the same assessment, and that the vote follows nearly two years of student-led protests.

What are the concerns about fairness?

A joint statement from 24 civil society groups said conditions for free and fair elections are lacking, citing intimidation, arrests, attacks, misuse of public resources and a distorted media environment. Belgrade prosecutors questioned six people arrested on suspicion of plotting violence on election day. The rallies themselves have remained largely peaceful.

Polls open on Sunday 25 October. The size of the student vote, and whether Vucic's party can still form a government, will shape Serbia's relations with the European Union and the street movement that forced the election. A strong student result would also test how far the authorities accept an outcome that ends one of Europe's longest-running periods of dominant-party rule, something observers and the 24 civil society groups will be watching closely from the first count.