Serbian Diaspora Gathers in Los Angeles Before Historic Vote

Crowds of Serbians packed the pavement outside a café in Los Angeles on Saturday night, October 24, counting down the hours to a parliamentary election back home that would end Aleksandar Vučić’s long rule.

X user Mad Hatter filmed the gathering along a busy street, walking past people chatting under white market tents and patio umbrellas lit up against the night. “There are two hours left until the voting, and of course it is a big, big wait,” the filmer says in the video, adding that some had gathered there.

When polls closed in Serbia on Sunday, the student-led Students’ List won about 52.7 percent of the vote, against 39.2 percent for Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, according to preliminary results from the election commission. Vučić conceded defeat that night.

The student movement was formed less than two years ago after a deadly railway station roof collapse in Novi Sad that protesters blamed on corruption and negligence.