WHAT FOLLOWS AFTER VUČIĆ’S RESIGNATION: Elections within 90 days at the latest, Speaker of Parliament to assume presidential duties!

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said he will resign from office on September 27. If his resignation is received by Parliament on the same day, this means that Serbian citizens will go to the polls again no later than December 26. In the meantime, Ana Brnabić will serve as acting president until a new composition of the Serbian parliament is elected.

If President Aleksandar Vučić’s announcements are to be believed, on the evening of September 27, immediately after returning from New York, where he is expected to address the United Nations General Assembly, he will speak to citizens and thank them for their support.

“I have been president of the republic for the longest time, and the only thing I can say is that I faithfully served Serbia and the citizens of this country… And then I will go as an ordinary citizen, as I once was. I bought a little truck, I have my own car, and I also got some kind of camper van, so I can visit villages and urban areas,” Vučić said in an interview with Pink, announcing that he would hold three or four large rallies.

“Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Niš. I think the final rally will be in Niš.”

This means that the presidential election will almost certainly not be held at the same time as the parliamentary election, and the final deadline for holding it is December 26.

As for the procedure, the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic states that presidential elections are called by the Speaker of the National Assembly. The decision to call an election takes effect on the day it is published in the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia.”

The law also stipulates that no less than 30 and no more than 60 days may pass between the day the election is called and election day.

However, speaking about the possible deadlines, political scientist Aleksandar Ivković says that the presidential election does not have to be called on the same day Vučić submits his resignation.

All possible deadlines

“So, the first thing that is very important, and I think there is a possibility that they could take advantage of it, is that the president’s resignation does not become effective when he signs it. It becomes effective when Parliament receives it, and the question is on which day they will send it. We still have to see whether Vučić might ceremonially sign his resignation in front of the cameras, but then the resignation will not actually reach Parliament for some time, so they could use that to delay things, or the resignation could take effect on the same day,” Ivković told Nova.

The difference between the resignation of the president and the resignation of the government is that the government’s resignation must be approved in a plenary session.

“When it comes to the president’s resignation, Parliament only needs to receive it. However, it is not clearly defined what that means, whether it simply means that it is received and registered, or that it reaches the Speaker’s desk. But essentially, all of this can be done in one day: Vučić submits his resignation and Ana Brnabić, as Speaker of Parliament, calls the presidential election.”

Ivković says the election could be called on the same day Vučić submits his resignation, but if they opt for a scenario in which the deadlines are stretched to the maximum, that would mean calling the presidential election at the end of November and going to the polls toward the end of the year. The final deadline is December 26.

Since that date falls on a Saturday, and assuming the presidential election is held on a Sunday, as has been the practice for years, Serbian citizens could go to the polls again on December 20.

According to the procedure, in the meantime, Ana Brnabić would assume the duties of president as Speaker of the Serbian parliament.

“She would at that point be both acting president of the republic and Speaker of a dissolved National Assembly, which means that all institutions would then be in an acting capacity, but that’s how it is…,” Ivković says, adding that Brnabić would perform that function until the new parliamentary composition is constituted and a new Speaker of Parliament is elected, who would then take over until a new president of the country is elected.

A very important question that has been lost amid the turmoil over calling early parliamentary elections, collecting and signing signatures, and part of the opposition withdrawing from the electoral race is: Why did Aleksandar Vučić decide to separate the parliamentary and presidential elections?

Ivković believes that all of this is part of a strategy.

Vučić believes he will demoralize the other side

“I think Vučić hopes he will win the parliamentary election and that in this way he will demoralize the other side and lower turnout, which will almost certainly be record-high or close to record-high in the parliamentary election. And then, if Vučić wins the parliamentary election, they are counting on people saying: ‘There’s no point in going out to vote in the presidential election too… He’s going to be prime minister anyway… It’s an unimportant position…’ and so on. I think that is definitely Vučić’s plan,” Ivković says, adding:

“I don’t know whether it will work out for him, because we can see that he is not really controlling the atmosphere as he should, and the question is whether he will win the parliamentary election, and even if he does, whether the other side will give up that easily and abandon the presidential election.”

Ivković recalls that we saw a similar atmosphere during the 2023 Belgrade election.

“In 2023, there was optimism within the opposition that they could win in Belgrade. And then, when they did not win, even though Vučić himself did not formally claim victory, the energy fell and everything fell apart. However, I think we are now in a different situation as a society. The atmosphere is much different than it was in 2023–2024, so I don’t think things will go that easily this time,” Ivković concluded.