“It is clear that we have lost these elections,” Aleksandar Vucic said in a surprisingly early speech congratulating his opponents.

© Armin Durgut/Associated Press

High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic and university students.

High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic and university students.

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.

EU closely watching vote in the potential member state, where right-wing populist leader is neck and neck with movement sparked by deadly train crash that led to graft allegations