Ponos: Vucic Runs PM Campaign Ahead of Serbia Vote

Serbia Centre leader Zdravko Ponos has laid out a detailed scenario in which President Aleksandar Vucic, alongside his announcement of elections, is running an active official campaign from the office of head of state. Ponos said that Vucic has, in his assessment, been more sincere in his promises about elections than in his promises about utilities such as sewage.

The opposition leader’s reaction came after the president announced a sequence in which the government first resigns and elections are then called. Ponos extended that sequence with his own projected calendar, in which the September session of the United Nations General Assembly plays a central role.

Under the scenario he outlined, Vucic would remain president until the UN General Assembly session, scheduled for September 22 to 26, where he would defend Serbia’s position on Kosovo. Only after returning from that session, Ponos projects, would the presidential resignation and entry onto the parliamentary ballot follow.

Why does Ponos count on October 18?

Ponos names October 18 as a possible voting date, noting that the prime minister would resign earlier so that the conditions for calling elections could be met. That date, however, has not been officially confirmed from any quarter. It is the opposition leader’s own calculation, drawn from publicly available deadlines and from Vucic’s statements, not a decision by the competent authorities.

In the Serbian electoral cycle, the difference between a projection and an official decision is not a formality. The president calls elections by decree, and from that moment the legal deadlines for the campaign, candidacies and voting begin to run. Until the decree is signed, every date remains a matter of estimate, however precise it may appear.

Ponos also directed his analysis at the substance of the promises. In his words, the president chooses his words more carefully when speaking about elections than when speaking about everyday municipal matters, through which the opposition sought to signal that campaign rhetoric and the government’s actual record diverge.

What the government is saying

From the other side, the government’s message is that the order is clear: first the government resigns, then elections are called. Vucic presented that sequence as a framework, without a precise date, leaving room for interpretations that the opposition promptly filled with its own calendar.

For now, the fact remains that there is no official date. Ponos’s reconstruction of the scenario is useful as a map of possible moves, but until the decree is signed it is still only one of several possible paths. Party corridors note other dates as well, from late September to mid November, depending on when the prime minister’s resignation would be submitted.

Will the real electoral calendar match Ponos’s projection, or will the government keep the date to itself until the last moment?