Serbia’s long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić has admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections.
Celebrations erupted as crowds descended on the centre of Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities.
The student movement was formed less than two years ago in response to a railway station disaster blamed on corruption and negligence, but fought the election with candidates from a cross-section of Serbian society.
“It is clear we have lost these elections,” right-wing populist leader Vučić said as he conceded late on Sunday, citing preliminary figures that gave the students 2.2 million votes and his party 1.72 million.
The students were on course to win 52.9% of the vote, according to a later projection by independent pollsters CeSID, with the highest turnout for years of 69.34%.
Vučić had spent two terms as president and could not seek a third term, so was leading his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) with the aim of returning to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017.
He called the snap elections after two years of protests triggered by the collapse of a canopy in front of Novi Sad station which killed 16 people.
