Three fake student associations were founded in a single day: “Student List of Serbia – Students Are Winning,” “Students Are Winning” and “Belgrade Student List – Students Are Winning.” All three associations were registered on the same day and at the same address, and their representative is 21-year-old David Isailović.
Students in blockade informed the public about this, suspecting that they could be potential phantom lists in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections.
“Due to recent amendments to the law allowing one person to support multiple lists with their signature, we have reasonable grounds to suspect that, through the abuse of state resources, the regime will submit fake lists bearing the name of the students,” they stated in a post on social media and stressed that there is only one student list.
“And that is the Student List – Students Are Winning.”
It is interesting that the three associations mentioned above were founded on September 3 and registered on September 10. They were also registered at the same address, 126A Bulevar Arsenija Čarnojevića in New Belgrade. Their representative is David Isailović from Ripanj, who was born in 2005. He is also listed as the owner of the “Amigo” café, whose operation was temporarily suspended. On two occasions, this café was blockaded, for a total of 49 days. Nova’s editorial staff tried to obtain an explanation from Isailović himself, but after the journalist introduced herself, he hung up.
Former ZLF MP Jelena Jerinić expressed suspicion that the regime is behind this setup.
“How do you know that the SNS registered a fake association? There is a typo in the name,” she wrote, publishing an application from the website of the Serbian Business Registers Agency in which one letter “t” is missing from the word “studentska.”
How do you know that the SNS registered a fake association?
There is a typo in the name. pic.twitter.com/1nx8IWDWVn— Jelena Jerinić (@JelenaJerinic) September 11, 2026
So, it appears that we will once again see a flood of phantom lists in these parliamentary elections.
Phantom lists are nothing new
Fake student lists also appeared in the recently held local elections, when voting took place in 10 cities and municipalities – Bor, Aranđelovac, Bajina Bašta, Kladovo, Knjaževac, Kula, Lučani, Majdanpek, Sevojno and Smederevska Palanka.
Ahead of those elections, CRTA identified at least 12 lists suspected of being so-called phantom lists, while another four were also under suspicion.
“Some options simply appear out of nowhere in elections and, as a rule, receive fewer votes than the number of signatures of support they ‘collected’ in order to run. You will also see lists of certain national minorities in areas where there are no members of those communities,” Nedeljkov said in an interview with Nova.
One of the most obvious examples was in Kula. There, the students ran as “Mladi Kula,” while a list called “Mladi za Kulu” appeared.
The “Mladi za Kulu” list had ten candidates, including a waiter, auto mechanic, food technicians, a locksmith-carpenter, an entrepreneur and pensioners. The first candidate on the list was Dario Šišarica, whom the students claimed was one of the people behind the list’s profile and who had previously participated in protests organized by the Serbian Progressive Party.
A similar case was recorded in Smederevska Palanka, where the “Students of Palanka” list appeared. At first glance, it appeared to be a student list. Some of the candidates were indeed students, but representatives of the student movement claimed that it was a fake list whose goal was to confuse voters. The genuine student list in that municipality was called “Young People for Palanka – Alone Against Everyone.”
This practice did not begin with the student movement. In elections in previous years, phantom lists often used words that were recognizable to voters and that they associated with the opposition.
The mandate that tipped the balance in Niš
Just how significant even a small number of votes can be was demonstrated by the case of Niš in the 2024 local elections.
The “Russian Party – Russia and Niš in the Heart” appeared on the ballot and won one mandate. After the initial results, the opposition had 31 mandates, while the SNS had 29 and the Russian Party had one.
However, after a recount and decisions by the City Election Commission, the SNS received one additional mandate, making the final balance 30 mandates for the Progressives, 30 for the opposition and one for the Russian Party. That one mandate was enough for the SNS to form the government in Niš, with the support of Russian Party councilor Tihomir Perić, a man who said of himself that he was not Russian and did not even speak Russian.
MORE TOPICS:
Source: Nova ; Foto: Pixabay
Add Serbian Times as your Google source