Student List: Leskovac Queues, Indjija Notary Cancels
Citizens across Serbia lined up for hours on September 12 to sign for the Student List, a day after notaries cancelled verification appointments in several municipalities, including Indjija.
Tens of thousands of citizens across Serbia lined up on Saturday, September 12, to sign in support of the “Student List, students are winning” ballot for the parliamentary election scheduled for October 25. The signature drive began that same morning at dozens of locations nationwide, from Belgrade to Leskovac, and the list needs 10,000 verified signatures to qualify for candidacy.
A day earlier, on Friday, September 11, the outlet Masina was first to report that notaries in several municipalities had cancelled previously scheduled appointments for verifying signatures for this specific list. Nova.rs picked up the story at 5:54 PM. The reason for the cancellations has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the notaries’ actions in different municipalities are connected.
Where the signing took place
In Belgrade, signatures were collected at several locations at once: on Hilandarska Street in Stari Grad, at Primorska Street 22 in Palilula, in Vracar, and in Zemun. Outside the capital, the list of locations included:
- Leskovac, Bore Stankovica Street 7A, behind the old main post office, from 11 AM to 7 PM
- Nis, three locations: the “Ambasador” shopping center at Strahinjica Bana Street 3, second floor, Pantelejska Street 41, and the “Ban” cafe at University Square 5, all from 11 AM to 7 PM
- Kragujevac, from 9 AM to 6 PM
- Pancevo, Dr Zarka Fogarasa Street
- Cacak, Ucitelja Marinovica Street
- Topola, Arandjelovac, Knic and Jagodina
In Leskovac, a line had already formed outside the old main post office building by around 10 AM, an hour before verification was set to begin, and according to reports from the scene it stretched several hundred meters. In Kragujevac, signing started late because the notary announced they would arrive only around 9:30 AM, even though citizens had been waiting since early morning. At some Belgrade locations, participants said the wait stretched to as long as four hours.
“A line is already forming, and we haven’t even started signing yet!” basketball player Vladimir Stimac wrote in a post from one of the signing locations on September 12. Students in blockade at Stari Grad reported something similar: “SIGNING FOR THE STUDENT LIST. Hilandarska is off to a strong start!”
For the Raca municipality, verification was scheduled only for Sunday, September 13, at Karadjordjeva Street 30, from 10 AM to 7 PM.
Appointments cancelled ahead of the action
The case documented in the most detail so far is the one in Indjija. Students in blockade in that town said a public notary from Stara Pazova had cancelled the engagement of two verifiers who had been scheduled for that very Saturday, September 12. According to their account, the ruling party was collecting signatures at ten locations in the Indjija municipality that same day, while the Student List had no verifier available at all.
The head of the Indjija Municipal Administration promised the students he would announce verification times and options around 11 AM. According to the students, he had not gotten back to them by the time this article was published.
“These are the moves of cowards, and they only confirm one fact: students are winning,” students in blockade in Indjija said in a statement released on September 11, urging citizens who want to support the list to stay ready, since a verification appointment could be announced on short notice.
In none of the reported cancellation cases, whether in Indjija or in the other municipalities named by Masina, has an official explanation come from either the notaries or local authorities so far. Whether this is a coincidental overlap in verifiers’ schedules or a coordinated move remains an open question that even the signature drive’s own organizers cannot answer.
Collecting signatures is, in any case, only the first step toward candidacy. The Student List needs 10,000 verified citizens’ signatures to appear on the ballot at all ahead of the election scheduled for October 25. The next test will be how long verifiers in municipalities like Indjija keep failing to show up for announced appointments, and whether a similar scenario repeats on Sunday, when verification is scheduled for Raca.
