BIRODI: Vucic Resignation Would End Article 111 Violation

The Bureau for Social Research, BIRODI, says a resignation by Serbia’s president before the start of the election campaign would mark the first concrete step toward separating the presidential office from party politics. The organization’s statement was published on Friday, August 7, 2026, with the first media reports appearing around 9:40 a.m. It names two specific provisions: Article 111 of Serbia’s Constitution and Article 40 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption.

The statement follows a comment made by President Aleksandar Vucic the day before. On August 6, shortly after noon, Vucic told reporters he would submit his resignation before the campaign begins and said he is the only president in Europe willing to do so, so that he can take part in the campaign as an ordinary citizen.

Which provisions does BIRODI cite?

BIRODI says that by resigning, the president would end the current practice of violating those two provisions and start acting in line with the first priority recommendation from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, on separating the state from the ruling party. Article 111 of the Constitution holds that the president of the Republic expresses the state unity of Serbia, while Article 40 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption sets out the obligations of a public official. The organization assesses that a resignation would bring the president into line with both provisions and with international recommendations on the integrity of the election process.

The second part of the statement does not concern the president but election data. BIRODI says that accepting results must not depend on trust in the statements of political actors, but on the verifiability of the process itself, and calls for the application of election forensics, methods used at the level of individual polling stations to identify the risk of irregularities and determine whether additional checks are warranted.

According to BIRODI, that requires:

• publishing complete results by polling station in a machine readable format
• publishing scanned polling station records linked to the database, together with metadata
• keeping a publicly available record of changes and releasing data before the deadlines for complaints expire
• ensuring equal and timely access to the data for citizens, media, organizations and researchers

BIRODI summed up that entire request in a single sentence:

Only independent, expert and publicly verifiable analysis of election data can contribute to election integrity, to establishing the facts and to the acceptance of election results.

What the president said the day before

Vucic described his announcement as a move no other president in Europe has made and said he is not running a functionary’s campaign.

I don’t think there’s anything more honest than that.

Asked what he would do after resigning, he gave a short answer, leaving the decision to voters.

Whether I’ll keep doing this in some other capacity, that’s up to the citizens.

He also said he does his job, does not accept demands to be lazy, and will respect every recommendation and law, even “the ones that are stupid,” because “the law is the law.” Speaking about his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said he has no voters in Sipovo, Novo Selo, Janja or Cipuljici.

What remains open

No date has been named. The resignation is tied to the start of the campaign, and the campaign only begins once elections are called, so no deadline is running yet under that announcement. For now, BIRODI’s assessment on Article 111 applies to a promise, not to a completed move.

The statement’s second demand stands on its own. Publishing results by polling station, scanned records and metadata is not in the president’s hands but the election administration’s, so that part remains on the table regardless of when, or whether, the resignation is submitted. The first test will come with the next election cycle, when it becomes clear in what format the results are published.