From Nepal to Czechoslovakia and Georgia, history offers plenty of examples of student protests forcing a government from office. Serbia’s students are taking a different approach: They’re trying to end leader Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long rule through the ballot box.

Polling suggests the Student List movement has some chance of ousting Vucic, who called a snap parliamentary election for Oct. 25 in response to demonstrations against alleged government corruption.

That’s not to say a teenage undergraduate may soon grasp the levers of power in the Balkan nation. The movement’s patchwork of “plenums” have mostly chosen paid academics — professors and postgraduates — and members of other professions as candidates to stand against Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.

Student List’s top candidate — its nominee most likely to win a seat in the assembly — is Ilija Srdanovic, a 56-year-old medicine professor and cardiologist from the capital Belgrade. He isn’t necessarily the group’s choice for prime minister, as it’s avoided naming a preferred candidate for the post.

The decision is in keeping with the political startup’s decentralized organizational approach. It has no clear leader, and operates through plenums — grass-roots cells that each contribute ideas to an umbrella group that sets the movement’s general direction. Members take turns in making public appearances so that no single figure gains too high a profile. Decision making is deliberately opaque, and it’s not clear how they would pick a governing cabinet.

Fighting corruption is the group’s top priority. Vucic has overseen a revival of Serbia’s economy and the nation’s economic output has tripled during his tenure. But he’s gained a reputation for micromanaging, and his government has been handing out big infrastructure development contracts directly instead of using public tenders, leading to allegations of corruption.

Student List says it would fight graft that drains money from the public purse, break up monopolies that hinder fair competition and review all large contracts signed by Vucic’s administration. It would also challenge the sale of national assets to foreign investors and prioritize domestic control of mineral and other resources.

To bring more transparency to public life, the party would crack down on perceived corruption in the legal system, overhaul the judiciary and investigate illegally acquired or undeclared assets. Its leading activists have talked of creating a special prosecutorial police force to investigate abuses of power. On some issues, the party has signaled continuity with Vucic’s legacy.

The president has maintained, but not decisively pushed, Serbia’s longstanding bid to join the European Union, while seeking US and Chinese investments and maintaining cordial relations with Russia to preserve access to its cheap natural gas. Like Vucic, Student List would not join western sanctions on Russia, which it sees as an influential nation and an important source of energy. And the movement rejects any recognition of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Russia and China have long supported Serbia’s claim over the territory.

Vucic has cultivated the backing of the Serbian Orthodox Church to bolster his nationalist agenda, and Student List activists have displayed similar support for the institution at some of their rallies.

Vucic appears to have the edge, but the outcome is uncertain. Some opinion polls show his party leading by as much as 10 percentage points. Others have Student List ahead by almost the same margin. Teneo consultancy put the chances of a Vucic win at 50%, Student List at 35% and an inconclusive, contested outcome at 15%. Past elections have seen accusations of vote rigging, and Vucic’s challengers say they suspect his followers will try to tamper with ballots. His party denies this. It says its opponents are trying to justify their inevitable election loss and undermine the government.

Before he called the snap vote, Vucic’s presidential mandate was set to expire in May next year. He is now seeking the post of prime minister in the next government as a way to side-step presidential term limits.

Household incomes in Serbia have almost tripled and massive infrastructure projects have changed Belgrade’s landscape under Vucic. But accusations of routine graft have undermined popular support for his administration. Many Serbs are frustrated with his party’s overwhelming dominance of national life and reputation for favoring loyalty over competence when making key appointments.

In 2024, a canopy at a newly-refurbished train station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people. University students and their professors led anti-government rallies, blaming corruption and official incompetence for the deaths. The following year, the students seized control of university premises and began to demand early elections. They flooded social media with catchy campaign slogans and opposition media outlets ran their ads. By mid-2025, what began as a diffuse, ad-hoc protest movement had coalesced into a formidable political operation.

Vucic’s allies have denied the country has a corruption problem. Government officials have said Student List is funded by foreign actors to destabilize Serbia. The movement denies this.

The National Assembly’s 250 lawmakers will be chosen using proportional representation, with each party putting forward a list of candidates and the number of seats awarded to it depending on its share of the national vote. The first results are expected within hours of the polls closing at 8 p.m. on Oct. 25. A reliable indication of the result is expected some time after 10 p.m. The country is due to hold a separate presidential election in late December.