On 17 December 2023, a snapparliamentary election was held in Serbia.[10] The election resulted in a victory of the SNS-led Serbia Must Not Stop electoral alliance that won a majority of seats in the National Assembly of Serbia. The second place was obtained by Serbia Against Violence (SPN), a broad coalition of opposition parties, that won 65 seats in total. The SPS electoral alliance, however, collapsed in popularity and only won 18 seats, its worst result since the 2007 parliamentary election.[11] Despite this, according to non-governmental and monitoring organisations, the election day was marked with electoral fraud and irregularities such as the Bulgarian train and vote buying.[12][13] After the election, protests were held up to 30 December, with its organisers, including SPN, calling for the results to be annulled.[14][15] Amidst the protests, a riot occurred after an unsuccessful attempt from opposition councillors to enter the building of the City Assembly of Belgrade.[16]
The 250 members of the National Assembly are elected by closed-listproportional representation from a single nationwide constituency.[25][26] Eligible voters vote for electoral lists, on which the candidates of the accepted lists are present. A maximum of 250 candidates could be present on a single electoral list. An electoral list could be submitted by a registered political party, a coalition of political parties, or a citizens' group.[26] To submit an electoral list, at least 10,000 valid signatures must be collected, though ethnic minority parties only need to collect 5,000 signatures to qualify on the ballot.[26][27] At least 40% of candidates on electoral lists must be female.[28] The electoral list is submitted by its chosen representative or representatives. An electoral list could be declined, after which those who had submitted can fix the deficiencies in a span of 48 hours, or rejected, if the person is not authorised to nominate candidates. The name and date of the election, names of the electoral lists and its representatives, and information on how to vote are only present on the voting ballot.[29]
The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), local election commissions, and polling boards oversee the election.[29] Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of 3% of all votes cast, although the threshold is waived for ethnic minority parties.[25][30] The seats are distributed by dividing the total number of votes received by the electoral list participating in the distribution of seats by each number from one to 250. If two or more electoral lists receive the same quotients on the basis of which the seat is distributed, the electoral list that received the greater number of votes has priority.[29] Parliamentary seats are awarded to candidates from electoral lists according to their order, starting with the first candidate from an electoral list.[26]
A parliamentary election is called by the president of Serbia, who also has to announce its date and dissolve the National Assembly in the process.[26][29] To vote, a person has to be a citizen and resident of Serbia and at least 18 years old.[31] For those who live abroad, they are able to vote at diplomatic missions.[25] At least five days before the election, citizens are notified about the election; citizens receive information about the day and time of the election and the address of the polling station where they can vote.[26]Election silence begins two days before the voting day, and it lasts until the closure of all polling stations.[32] During the election day, eligible voters could vote from 07:00 (UTC+01:00) to 20:00, though if the polling station is opened later than 07:00, voting is then extended by the amount of time for which the opening of the polling station was delayed.[29][33] Voters who are not able to vote at polling stations due to being sick, old, or invalid have to inform their election commission before 11:00 so that they could vote on the election day from their home between after 11:00.[33]
Election date
By law, the next parliamentary election should take place by 31 December 2027.[31] The election could be scheduled earlier.[34] Vučić announced in 2024 that the next parliamentary election and presidential election would be held on the same date in 2027, thus making it a general election.[35] Vučević also echoed that elections would not be held prior 2027.[36] However, Darko Glišić, the president of the executive board of SNS, said that there could still be a possibility of holding elections earlier despite the government's plan being to complete the entire four-year mandate.[37][38] Political analyst Dragomir Anđelković argued that the next parliamentary election would be only held after the completion of the Expo 2027 fair and the expansion of the Belgrade Waterfront project.[39]
Election conditions
After the election protests, the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding the election in February 2024, calling for it to be internationally investigated.[40] The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) also published a report on elections, concluding that it was marked with numerous irregularities and the abuse of public institutions.[41] In response to ODIHR's recommendation of initiating further changes to improve election conditions, the National Assembly of Serbia formed a working body on improving election conditions in April 2024.[42] At its first session, Nemanja Nenadić, the director of Transparency Serbia, was elected its chairman.[43] Nenadić announced that the proposed changes would have to be voted by the National Assembly by July 2025.[44]
In response to the 2024 Belgrade City Assembly election, ODIHR published another report in which it concluded that the election was again marked by irregularities.[45] ODIHR representatives further met with minister Jelena Žarić Kovačević and RIK representatives in September 2024.[46][47]
The table below lists political parties and coalitions elected to the National Assembly after the 2023 parliamentary election.[48] The final results were published on 3 January 2024.[49]
Following the 2023 elections, Vučević announced that the idea of the People's Movement for the State (NPZD) would continue to be discussed for the next parliamentary election.[53]Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) formed a joint alliance, named "Belgrade Tomorrow", in April 2024 for the June 2024 Belgrade City Assembly election; in addition to its partners, the list also included the minor government coalition members Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), as well far-right Serbian Party Oathkeepers (SSZ) and Serbian Radical Party (SRS).[54] Vučević said that with the formation of the list, NPZD was also effectively formalised.[55] However, Vučić announced in December 2024 that NPZD would be formed on 15 March 2025.[56] A rally promoting the movement was held on 24 January 2025.[57]
Serbia Against Violence ceased to exist in April 2024 due to a dispute between its parties on whether to boycott the 2024 Belgrade City Assembly election.[60] SSP, Serbia Centre, and Together opted to boycott the election, while the rest of SPN parties took part under the "We Choose Belgrade" banner.[61] A rift between the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) and Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) occurred in the National Assembly in March 2024. All three PSG MPs decided to leave the SSP–PSG parliamentary group and to continue as MPs without a parliamentary group.[62] SSP remained in the charge of their parliamentary group.[63] In October 2024, Željko Veselinović and Đorđe Đorđić left the SSP parliamentary group.[64] They were followed by Sonja Pernat and Irena Živković on 19 November.[65] Three days later, they formed the "Movement Sloga – Experts Should Have A Say" parliamentary group.[66] Movement Sloga leader Veselinović announced the formation of the Workers' Party before 2025.[65] They began collecting signatures to form the party in December 2024.[67]
The Democratic Party elected its new president, Srđan Milivojević, on 14 December 2024.[68] Milivojević subsequently launched a campaign on consolidating progressive parties; Together merged into DS on 27 December.[69][70]
Opinion polling for Serbian parliamentary elections has been conducted by various monitoring and research organisations such as Faktor Plus and Ipsos.[72]
Graphical summary
The graph below showcases major parties and alliances in opinion polls from the 2023 parliamentary election to the present day.
Local regression chart of poll results from 17 December 2023 to the present day
^ abcde"Zakon o izboru narodnih poslanika" [Law on Election of People's Deputies]. Pravno-informacioni sistem (in Serbian). 7 February 2022. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
