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Thousands pack arena in Belgrade as Serbia's leader Vucic launches prime minister bid · Best of: Features

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  Thousands pack arena in Belgrade as Serbia's leader, Vuczyk launches Prime Minister
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  bid. This article is being read by an automated voice generated by
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  Everlett. Belgrade, Serbia, the AP. Thousands of supporters of Serbia's
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  populist leader, Aleksandar Fvucic, packed The
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  largest indoor arena in Belgrade on Saturday for the de facto launch
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  of his campaign for Prime Minister that will culminate in a pivotal
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  election set for october twenty fifth. The early election which polls suggest
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  could be tight between Vucic, party and a group of candidates fielded
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  by a student led protest movement was called before Vucic resigned as
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  president on september twenty seventh, cutting short his second term by more
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  than seven months. Vuchik, who is constitutionally prohibited from running for a
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  third term as president, declared upon resigning that he would lead his
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  populist Serbian Progressive Party in the parliamentary election. If his party wins
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  a majority of seats, the Parliament is expected to elect Vucik as
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  Prime Minister. Dozens of buses from across Serbia clogged streets around Belgrade
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  Arena on Saturday as supporters arrived at the rally in the capital
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  carrying Serbian flags and banners bearing Vucic's picture. The event, televised dozens
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  of channels across Serbia, capped a week of Vuchik touring towns and
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  villages in an apparent bid to shore up his popularity that's been
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  shaken after almost two years of sustained anti government protests. The youth
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  backed movement that led the protests has demanded accountability for the november
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  first, twenty twenty four train station canopy collapse that killed sixteen people
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  in the northern city of Novi Sad. The
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  movement's struggle for justice over the tragedy and against corruption has grown
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  into a nationwide political force, those electoral arm, the student list, will
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  attempt to oust Vucic's government after fourteen years in power. Vuchik himself
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  has been either Prime Minister or President for the past twelve years.
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  The student list includes university professors, teachers, experts, And others from across
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  The political spectrum, yet Vucic has accused those behind the movement of
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  seeking to bring Serbia to a halt, and claimed, without providing evidence,
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  that it's backed by unspecified foreign agents. On Saturday, Vuchik told his
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  supporters, absent an intervention of some foreign intelligence service, we will defeat
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  them, and they know that. The election is taking place amid heightened
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  political tensions in Serbia with reports of incidents and physical altercations at
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  campaign events. International observers have described previous elections in Serbia as marred
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  by multiple irregularities and violence. While formally a candidate for European Union
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  membership, Serbia's accession process has called under Vucic who maintains close ties
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  with Russia and China. European institutions have warned of democratic backsliding in
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  Serbia in successive reports tracking the progress of candidate countries. Rights and
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  media freedom groups have separately warned of police violence, arbitrary tensions, unauthorized
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  surveillance, and threats against journalists. This story has been corrected to show
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  that the election was called before Vucic resigned, not after.