Serbia's long-serving strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse, student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.
It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led with virtually absolute power for 14 years.
High turnout and rising tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election, a showdown between Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party and university students who, accusing the government of corruption and dismantling democracy, had built a popular following nationwide.
Serbia's 6.4 million voters were electing lawmakers to the 250-member Parliament. In conceding the election, Vucic said his party projects that his opponents, the youth-backed Students' List, will take between 135 and 140 seats while his SNS party will have around 105.
"The Students' List has won," Vucic told supporters at his party's election night event, though he blamed Serbia's independent media, alleged interference by unnamed European countries, and an "American deep state" for the loss.