Around 150,000 rally in Belgrade as Serbia heads to pivotal poll

BELGRADE – Around 150,000 supporters of Serbia’s opposition student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday, seeking to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic in crunch parliamentary elections this weekend. The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, wants to end more than 14 years of rule by Vucic’s right-leaning populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Sunday’s vote. It is the biggest threat Vucic has faced, and civil society groups have warned the poll campaign has been marred by intimidation, arrests, attacks, misuse of public resources and a distorted media environment.