Hubac: Student List Signatories Are Also Candidates
Zeljko Hubac, co-founder of Student List, Students Are Winning, explains why candidate names have not been published yet and confirms every initiative signatory is also a candidate.
Zeljko Hubac, a playwright and dramaturg at Belgrade’s National Theatre and one of 14 founders of the citizens’ group Student List, Students Are Winning, told the daily newspaper Danas that the names of candidates on the student list have not been published yet for political and tactical reasons. The statement appeared in Danas’s September 11 edition, a day after the movement held its first pre-election rally in Novi Sad.
As Srpske vesti previously reported in “Student List Launches From Novi Sad, 250 Names Await the REC,” the full list of 250 candidates, matching the number of seats in the National Assembly, will only become public once it is submitted to the Republic Election Commission (REC). Hubac has now confirmed for the first time that all 14 signatories of the founding initiative are themselves candidates on that list.
“It isn’t some secret. It’s the result of an agreement within the student organization. There are both political and tactical reasons for not disclosing the names. What we can say is that the signatories of the initiative are on the list,” Hubac told Danas.
He was asked about the reasons for the silence after observers noted that it isn’t hard to guess who will appear on the lists of other election contenders. For the Serbia Europe coalition, for instance, names such as Dragan Djilas, Zdravko Ponos, Marinika Tepic and Borko Stefanovic are expected, while the Serbian Progressive Party is expected to field Aleksandar Vucic, Ana Brnabic and Sinisa Mali. Hubac replied that there is a clear strategic decision, made in line with the law, to publish the student list only once it is submitted to the REC, not before.
When Will the List Become Public?
The procedure, according to Hubac, is clear. The REC first needs to approve the forms for collecting signatures of support, and only then can the group of citizens begin gathering the 10,000 signatures required to submit an election list. All of this must be completed within the legal deadline ahead of the election, scheduled for October 25.
The movement’s first pre-election rally took place on Thursday, September 10, at 5 p.m. outside the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. Thirty candidates who will appear on the list were introduced there, Hubac among them. He did not directly confirm that he himself will be a candidate, and when asked about tabloid speculation that he could be placed third on the list, he said he only responds to tabloids through the courts.
Among the initiative’s signatories, alongside Hubac, are Marija Maruna, a professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade; Mirjana Nikolic, a professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and rector of the University of Arts; and Radomir Saicic of the Faculty of Chemistry, a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The list also includes Goran Perisic, a worker at the Kolubara Mining Basin in Lazarevac, and Katarina Scepanovic, an English teacher at the Philological Grammar School and deputy chair of the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools.
Other signatories include Stanislav Milosevic, a teaching assistant at the Astronomy Department of the Faculty of Mathematics; Aleksandar Cupic, a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering; Milica Jovanovic, a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences; Sanja Fric, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering; Dusan Djurdjevic of the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Pristina, temporarily seated in Kosovska Mitrovica; architect Miljan Salata; oral surgeon Miroslav Andric; and Maja Crnogorac Djuric of the Preschool Circle community.
After the Novi Sad rally, additional names surfaced publicly that do not belong to the initiative’s founders: Nemanja Djuric, Ilija Srdanovic, Ljubica Oparnica, sociologist Jovo Bakic, Adem Mavric and actor Tihomir Stanic.
The election the student list is preparing for was called by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and will be held on October 25. Until then, according to Hubac, the list of 250 names stays closed, a tactical decision, he insists, made by the movement itself rather than by any individual.
