Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 17 December 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly. While they were initially scheduled to be held by 30 April 2026, Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, called a snap election in November 2023. In addition to the parliamentary elections, the Vojvodina provincial election and local elections were held in 65 cities and municipalities, including the capital, Belgrade.
In the 2022 parliamentary election, SNS lost its parliamentary majority while opposition parties returned to the National Assembly. Ana Brnabić, who has been the prime minister since 2017, and her third cabinet were inaugurated in October 2022. Her cabinet saw several changes in 2023; Branko Ružić resigned and Rade Basta was dismissed. Brnabić's cabinet has also been involved in the North Kosovo crisis and was faced with anti-government protests from May to November 2023, which were triggered after the Belgrade school shooting and a mass murder near Mladenovac and Smederevo. Opposition parties organising the protests formed the Serbia Against Violence coalition in October.
The campaign was met with an increase in political tensions, polarisation, and voter intimidation. Candidates campaigned on issues such as fighting against crime and corruption, decreasing inflation, and the Ohrid Agreement. The Republic Electoral Commission proclaimed 18 electoral lists for the parliamentary election. Monitoring and non-governmental organisations reported that the election day was marked with electoral fraud, mostly in the Belgrade region. ODIHR concluded that the elections were well organised, but that SNS had a systematic advantage in the election and abused public funds. The election resulted into SNS regaining its parliamentary majority, despite opinion polls predicting a decrease of support. The We – Voice from the People of conspiracy theorist Branimir Nestorović also unexpectedly gained representation in the National Assembly. Mass protests were held in December, with SPN and other organisers calling for the annulment of election results. Miloš Vučević of SNS later formed his cabinet in May 2024.
Background A populist coalition, led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), came to power after the 2012 election, along with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Aleksandar Vučić, who initially served as deputy prime minister and later as prime minister, was elected president of Serbia in 2017 and re-elected in 2022. Since he came to power, observers have assessed that Serbia has suffered from democratic backsliding into authoritarianism, followed by a decline in media freedom and civil liberties. In 2023, the V-Dem Institute categorised Serbia as an electoral autocracy, while Freedom House noted that SNS "eroded political rights and civil liberties, put pressure on independent media, the opposition, and civil society organisations".
The Together We Can Do Everything coalition, which was led by SNS, lost its parliamentary majority in the 2022 parliamentary election; the election also oversaw twelve electoral lists in total cross the 3% threshold, including the ones from the opposition. Non-governmental (NGO) and election monitoring organisations reported that electoral irregularities occurred during the voting day. Following the election, the United for the Victory of Serbia (UZPS) coalition, which placed second, was dissolved due to inter-coalition conflicts. Ana Brnabić, who has been the prime minister of Serbia since 2017, was sworn in alongside her third cabinet on 26 October 2022. Rade Basta, a minister in Brnabić's cabinet, voiced his support for introducing sanctions on Russia in March 2023. SPS and United Serbia (JS) later submitted a proposal to dismiss him from government, which was successful. In May 2023, Vučić was succeeded by Miloš Vučević as president of SNS.
North Kosovo crisis
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo escalated in July 2022, initially due to the expiry of an eleven-year validity period for car documentation. This was resolved in August following negotiations with the diplomatic representatives of the European Union (EU). The agreement went into effect on 1 September, with the deadline for obtaining new car documents set for 31 October 2022. A proposed agreement to normalise tensions between the two countries, later-informally known as the Ohrid Agreement, was sent to Serbia and Kosovo by diplomats and Emmanuel Bonne, and was leaked in September 2022. Its existence was confirmed by Serbia and Kosovo a month later. Just before the car document expiry deadline, Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti announced a phased implementation lasting until 21 April 2023. In protest of the announcement, hundreds of Kosovo Serb police officers, mayors, and Serb List politicians resigned from their positions. After negotiations with the EU, another agreement regarding documents was reached in November 2022; it was announced that licence plates issued by Serbia would continue to be in use in North Kosovo.
After claims that the Regional Operational Support Unit (ROSU) allegedly raided North Mitrovica in December 2022, Serbia announced that it would deploy Serbian forces to Kosovo. The government of Kosovo denied that ROSU entered North Mitrovica, while Kosovo Force rejected Serbia's request to deploy Serbian forces to Kosovo. Amidst this, barricades were put up in North Kosovo and ultranationalist protests were organised in Belgrade. Negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo continued, and in March 2023 Vučić and Kurti verbally agreed to implement the Ohrid Agreement.
An attack perpetrated by Serb militants occurred on 24 September 2023 in Banjska, a village in North Kosovo. The attack resulted in death of one Kosovo Police officer and three Serb militants. Milan Radoičić, a businessman and member of the Serb List, admitted his involvement in the attack; he was later arrested by the Serbian government, but the Supreme Court rejected the request do detain Radoičić for 30 days and he was released. In response to the attack, Serbia declared a national day of mourning for 27 September due to the death of three Serb militants. Kosovo alleged that the Serb participants had close relations with Vučić and the government of Serbia. The European Parliament also adopted a resolution to introduce measures against Serbia if proven to be directly involved in the attack.
2023 protests
The Belgrade school shooting and a mass murder near Mladenovac and Smederevo occurred in May 2023. The government responded by adopting measures such as stricter regulations on gun ownership and hiring 1,200 police officers to schools. The response was also criticised, particularly due to the statement of Branko Ružić, the minister of education, who said that "a cancerous, pernicious influence of the Internet, video games, and so-called Western values, is evident" (evidentan je kancerogen, poguban uticaj interneta video igrica, takozvanih zapadnih vrednosti) in the shooting, and Brnabić, who said that the "system did not fail" (sistem nije zakazao) when responding to the claims that the government could have stopped the shootings.
This resulted in mass protests, named Serbia Against Violence, which began on 8 May. Tens of thousands of demonstrators attended the protests. Despite being organised by the Democratic Party (DS), Do not let Belgrade drown (NDB), Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP), People's Party (Narodna), and Together opposition parties, no party signs were reported to be seen at the protests. In response to Serbia Against Violence protests, Vučić held an SNS-organised gathering on 26 May. The protests were organised in Belgrade and other cities from May to November 2023.
In response to the shootings, Ružić announced his resignation a day before the protests began. Đorđe Milićević was appointed as acting minister and was succeeded by Slavica Đukić Dejanović in late July 2023. As part of the protest demands, organisers filed a motion in the National Assembly in early July 2023 to dismiss minister Bratislav Gašić. However, the motion was unsuccessful.
Electoral system
The 250 members of the National Assembly are elected by closed-list proportional representation from a single nationwide constituency. 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 (grupa građana). 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 ballot. At least 40% of candidates on electoral lists must be female. The electoral list is submitted by its chosen representative or representatives. An electoral list could be declined, after which those who had submitted an electoral list 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.
The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), local election commissions, and polling boards oversee the election. 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. 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 the priority. Parliamentary seats are awarded to candidates from electoral lists according to their order, starting with the first candidate from an electoral list.
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. According to law, the next parliamentary election was supposed to take place by 30 April 2026. It is possible for a snap election to take place. To vote, a person has to be a citizen and resident of Serbia and at least 18 years old. For those who live abroad, they are able to vote at diplomatic missions. 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. Election silence begins two days before the voting day and it lasts until the closure of all polling stations. 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. 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 after 11:00.
Election date In April 2023, newspaper Danas reported that the parliamentary elections, local elections, the Vojvodina provincial elections, and the Belgrade City Assembly elections could be held as early as in November 2023. Shortly after the beginning of the 2023 protests, Vučić hinted that snap elections could take place before September 2023. Vučić continued to hint that early parliamentary elections could be held either in September or December 2023, or concurrently with the local and Vojvodina provincial elections in April or May 2024. By law, the Vojvodina provincial election and regular local elections could have been held as late as 30 June 2024.