Student List Withholds Candidate Names Until Election Call
Filip Kovacic says a bigger campaign starts once elections are called, with candidate names withheld until then. This weekend the drive heads to Pcinja District, schedule published.
The student list will not release the names of its candidates until elections are formally called. Student Filip Kovacic told the weekly Vreme that students are counting on grassroots work until then, and that they expect a bigger campaign than ever before, as large numbers of people are volunteering to join municipal teams. The first major test of that plan comes this weekend, August 15 and 16, when the campaign moves to Pcinja District.
According to Kovacic, the campaign’s strongest asset is not the list of names but the candidates’ presence in conversations with voters. “Candidates will join students in presenting the student list’s program,” he said, adding that the list includes a large number of experts from different fields.
Jovana Ignjatovic, a student at the University of Belgrade School of Electrical Engineering, named three parallel efforts underway: “A Student in Every Village,” “Students Calling” and door to door canvassing. What she hears on those visits, she said, is rarely ideological.
“People’s problems are mostly local, things like water, sewage and roads. People also bring up systemic corruption and economic problems.”
Water, sewage and roads are municipal issues that decide local elections, while the student list is running in a parliamentary race. How that gap will translate into the program will become clear only once candidates put their own names behind it.
Vranje, Vladicin Han and Bujanovac: Schedules Are Out
The weekend schedule for Pcinja District is planned down to the hour:
- Saturday, August 15, Vranje, stands at the upper and lower market from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
- Saturday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Vladicin Han in the park across from the NIS gas station, the center of Surdulica, Karadjordje Petrovic Square in Bujanovac and the center of Vranje
- Sunday, August 16, from 9 a.m. to noon, Dubnica, Ristovac, Bunusevac and Vranjska Banja
- Trgoviste, a stand by the “Milutin Bojic” secondary school
Alongside the village and market visits, a series of town hall talks is also underway. They are scheduled for August 15 in Backa Topola, August 16 in Zabalj, Novi Becej and Sremska Mitrovica, August 19 in Sombor and Ada, and August 21 in Novi Sad.
What Are Students Handing Out at the Stands?
A flyer on the voter register. Students explain to citizens how to check who is registered at their address, how to spot an irregularity and where to report it. The issue of phantom voters, until now confined to opposition statements, is turning into a street level conversation, in the form of instructions that take a few minutes to follow.
In Belgrade on August 13, door to door canvassing in Vracar started at 5 p.m., and a stand ran from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the intersection of Milesevska, Cara Nikolaja Drugog and Radivoja Koraca streets. Isidora Jovanovic, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences, told N1 the experience has been positive: “I think we’re all enjoying this campaign, because doors open to us with smiles.”
Branislav Todic, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy and a member of the Vracar local assembly, described encounters with voters from the Serbian Progressive Party.
“We try to point them to corruption. If we can’t get a conversation going, we end it politely and respectfully.”
That scene, according to those on the ground, is the rule rather than the exception, despite insulting graffiti aimed at students that has appeared on building facades.
Students Are Not the Only Ones Campaigning
The ruling party is not standing still while elections remain uncalled. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited road works between Sjenica and Ivanjica on August 13 and spoke with workers, saying the project should be finished by July next year. The watchdog group CRTA reported that in the first 11 days of August the president appeared live on television 49 times, carried by 25 broadcasters including public services and channels with national coverage. More than 40 percent of that airtime, the group said, went to infrastructure projects.
We previously reported on 19 student stands across 13 Belgrade municipalities in a single evening. That same network is now expanding to southern Serbia, and the next date to mark on the calendar is the town hall in Novi Sad on August 21. Until then, the names of the candidates stay with the students.
