The process of forming the Student List is currently underway, involving more than 80 plenums across Serbia, the weekly magazine Vreme published today, learning that all faculties and universities originally involved in the student protests in Serbia are united in this effort.
According to Vreme, the 250 spots on the student list have been divided among six university cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, and Kosovska Mitrovica.
The spots were divided according to the number of students in each of these centers, meaning that Belgrade received the highest number of places.
To avoid “Belgradization,” an ailment from which, as Vreme states, all political options suffer, the spots were distributed so that each of the six cities has its candidate at the very top of the list.
All spots are then distributed according to a specific algorithm, as the students explained to Vreme, ensuring that candidates from all faculties are evenly represented.
Regarding the conditions for joining the list, Vreme states as the first condition that the candidate cannot be a student.
Then comes the political filter – the candidate must not be a person who has ever been a member of any of the ruling coalition parties, from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Serbian Radical Party (SRS) to the United Peasant Party and Serb List, the text states.
When it comes to candidates who were members of opposition parties, the condition is that they were never officials of any of the parliamentary opposition parties.
As Vreme learns, this criterion was not strictly applied; instead, students left room for a candidate who was a member of an opposition party, or even an official at the local level, to be on the list if they can contribute to their struggle.
The students set an elimination condition that a candidate cannot be someone who was in the executive or legislative branch on behalf of the current ruling coalition, even if they are not a party member.
As highlighted in the text, the selection of candidates lasted for months through discussions to reach a consensus without outvoting.
Law Faculty student Petar Živković told Vreme that the Student List will soon be finalized, but the public will only be able to see its official version once elections are called.
He explained what the process looked like at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, where at the plenum every student can propose a candidate for the list, explain their proposal, and present the candidate’s biography.
Following the process, students voted for the proposed candidates, and those with the most votes were selected to be on the list.
Since the student movement is diverse in political beliefs but has remained united from the beginning, a “vetoing” process was introduced, which is currently ongoing across the whole of Serbia, Vreme writes.
Once the preliminary student list is created, all candidates on it undergo a “state confirmation” process.
Živković explains that this involves the verification of candidates, where every faculty can submit a veto and explain why a candidate should not be on the list.
The plenum opposing a candidate, according to Živković, sends arguments to all others, who express their views, and in the end all faculties vote on each candidate. For someone to be removed from the list, more than half of the total number of plenums must agree.
“And even if someone is vetoed, it doesn’t mean they aren’t an ally in our struggle,” Živković concludes, adding that the students have many individuals serving in advisory roles.
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Source: Vreme, Photo: Radule Perisic / ATAImages
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