Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia's long-standing leader, conceded defeat in snap parliamentary elections late Sunday to a student-led protest movement. "It is clear that we have lost these elections," Vučić said at his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) headquarters in Belgrade. Celebrations erupted across Serbia's cities after his announcement, with people dancing, chanting "victory", honking car horns and setting off fireworks.

The election followed two years of protests triggered by the 2023 collapse of a train station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people. Vučić had called the snap elections after the incident became a symbol of corruption and negligence in the country.

The Student List, a largely leaderless anti-corruption movement with members new to politics, fielded candidates from across Serbian society, including doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities. Ilija Srdanović, the Student List's lead candidate, told BBC Serbian: "This will be a free state." He said the movement hoped to "free the country from tyranny".

The Student List's manifesto included purging officials who broke rules or cracked down on protesters, stopping party loyalists from leading public enterprises and freeing the public broadcaster from political control. Vučić and the SNS have repeatedly denied allegations of corruption.

Preliminary figures from Serbia's election commission indicated a record-high turnout of 64.9% by 18:00 local time, two hours before polls closed. Commentators had suggested that high turnout would favour the student movement. Long queues formed outside polling stations across Serbia and at voting booths in countries with sizeable Serbian communities, including Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles, Chicago and Paris.

Vučić had completed two terms as president and could not seek a third. He had left the post of prime minister in 2017 and was leading the SNS with the aim of returning to that role. Vučić backs Serbia's EU candidacy while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. He had pledged to increase pensions, public sector salaries and investment in state healthcare.

One celebrating Serb told BBC Serbian: "Serbia is free. It's a miracle."