Representatives of the Student Movement have submitted to the Republic Electoral Commission the electoral list of the citizens’ group “Student List – Students Win” for the extraordinary parliamentary elections to be held on October 25.
The submission of the list was preceded by a march of citizens and students from the Rectorate of the University of Belgrade to the headquarters of the Republic Electoral Commission.
Last weekend, students collected certified signatures of support for the electoral list across Serbia, and long lines of citizens formed at numerous locations. N1 reported during the day that students had collected a sufficient number of signatures required for submitting the list, while the final number of collected signatures had not yet been announced at that time.
By submitting the documentation, the Student Movement enters the formal phase of the electoral process, but this is not yet the same as the proclamation of the electoral list.
The Republic Electoral Commission must check the submitted documentation and fulfillment of legal requirements, after which it makes a decision on the proclamation of the list. According to the procedure previously explained to N1 by City Electoral Commission member Zoran Alimpić, the REC has a deadline of 48 hours to verify the documentation.
The formal submitter of the list is not a political party, but the citizens’ group “Student List – Students Win”, which was founded on September 9, after the calling of extraordinary parliamentary elections.
The names of 14 signatories of the citizens’ group have been published: Marija Maruna, Katarina Šćepanović, Goran Perišić, Stanislav Milošević, Aleksandar Čupić, Miljan Salata, Milica Jovanović, Sanja Fric, Mirjana Nikolić, Radomir Saičić, Dušan Đurđević, Željko Hubač, Maja Crnogorac Đurić, and Miroslav Andrić.
At that time, students stated that they see the upcoming elections as a choice between two opposing directions for the country’s development and announced their campaign under the slogan “Students Win.”
In recent weeks, particular public attention has been drawn to the question of who will be among the candidates of the Student Movement.
Student representatives previously told N1 that the complete list of 250 candidates had been ready for months, but that the names were not published for, as they stated, technical, political, and tactical reasons.
One of the initiators of the citizens’ group, Željko Hubač, stated a few days before the collection of signatures that it was a strategic decision for the names of the candidates to be published at the moment of submitting the electoral list.
From the beginning, the Student Movement insisted that existing opposition political parties would not determine the composition of its list.
Some opposition organizations, including the Democratic Party, the Green-Left Front, and the Movement of Free Citizens, decided not to nominate their own parliamentary list and to support the student option in the elections.
Other opposition organizations decided to run with their own lists.
The collection of signatures over the weekend attracted significant public attention.
At some locations, citizens waited for hours to certify their support for the student list.
Adrijan Kraljević, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences, told N1 that at some locations in Belgrade, people waited for more than six hours.
At the same time, students claimed that the process was hampered by an insufficient number of available public notaries and municipal certifiers.
According to them, at some locations, certification hours had to be extended so that citizens who were already waiting could give their signatures.
Already on Sunday, representatives of the Student Movement announced that they had collected a sufficient number of signatures to submit the list, but continued collecting them.
The submission of the list represents a new phase of student political activity.
The Student Movement, which previously organized protests, blockades, door-to-door actions, and other activities across Serbia, is now for the first time entering the formal process to participate in parliamentary elections.
Unlike traditional parties, the students did not form a political party, but are using the legal possibility of candidacy through a citizens’ group for the elections.
Thus, if the REC determines that all legal requirements have been met and proclaims the list, “Student List – Students Win” will become one of the formal participants in the parliamentary elections on October 25.
The next important step is therefore not the submission itself, but the decision of the Republic Electoral Commission after verifying the documentation.
Note: This is a report on an event taking place tonight, September 14. At the time of source verification, the announced submission and previously collected sufficient number of signatures were confirmed; the formal proclamation of the list by the REC is a separate next step.
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