By Pavle Kosić
Key Takeaways:
- Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić resigned Sunday during his second (and last allowed) presidential term so he can lead the SNS list for prime minister in the Oct. 25 snap parliamentary election; Ana Brnabić is acting president.
- Law requires a presidential vote within three months of resignation; Vučić told RTS that race would be called more than a month after the parliamentary poll and to focus on that vote first.
- RTS offered a debate with Student List lead Ilija Srdanović; students asked for format and equal airtime. Polls show SNS and the Student List as the top two forces, with no presidential field yet named.
(EurActiv) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić resigned from office on Sunday, ahead of the snap parliamentary election in which he will run for re-election as the ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s (SNS) candidate for prime minister.
The resignation comes during Vučić’s second presidential term. Under the Constitution, he can no longer run for president. In the interim, Ana Brnabić – the outgoing parliamentary speaker and a senior SNS official – will serve as acting president.
Vučić had announced at a rally in Belgrade in late June that he would resign as president, but waited three months before formally stepping down.
Under Serbian law, a presidential election must be held within three months of the president’s resignation. This means voters will go to polls twice this year: for the snap parliamentary election scheduled for 25 October and for an early presidential election.
Before submitting his resignation on Sunday, Vučić appeared on public broadcaster RTS, where he said the presidential election would be called more than a month after the parliamentary vote.
“I am calling for complete focus, absolute concentration on the parliamentary elections and on victory, because the parliamentary election will determine Serbia’s path,” Vučić told RTS.
Over the weekend, RTS invited Vučić and Ilija Srdanović – the first candidate on the Student List – to a pre-election debate. While Vučić accepted the invitation, the student movement asked RTS for more details about the topics, format, duration and participants of the debate, before deciding who would represent the list. The movement also called on RTS to ensure equal, fair and balanced coverage of electoral participants during the campaign.
Srdanović separately called on RTS to act as a public service for all citizens, while criticising insufficient coverage of the Student List.
Public opinion polls continue to show SNS and the Student List to be the two strongest political forces, although different surveys point to different potential winners of the parliamentary election.
The presidential election is similarly uncertain, as the candidates have yet to be announced and there has so far been relatively little public discussion about the presidential race in Serbia.
