Vucevic: October 18 Ruled Out as Election Date

Milos Vucevic, president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), said on Tuesday, August 25, on the K1 TV show “Uranak” that parliamentary elections should be called sometime between September 3 and 10. In the same appearance, he announced that the SNS Main Board would meet roughly two weeks later to finalize the party’s election list and the names of its coalition partners.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has on several earlier occasions floated October 18 and October 25 as possible election dates. Those two dates, set against Vucevic’s timeline for calling the vote, raise the question of whether October 18 is still realistically on the table.

Why is October 18 out?

Political scientist Aleksandar Ivkovic told Nova that the legal deadlines do not favor the earlier date.

If the deadlines Vucevic mentioned hold true, that would mean October 18 is out as an election date, because for the vote to be held then, it would have to be called by September 3, which would mean the SNS Main Board would have to meet a day earlier.

The reasoning behind that is straightforward arithmetic. If elections were called only at the very start of Vucevic’s announced window, on September 3, that would leave the bare legal minimum of time to prepare for an October 18 vote. Any delay in calling the election closer to September 10, or a Main Board session pushed to around September 8, would by Ivkovic’s math effectively rule that date out. The political scientist added a brief caveat, “Unless they are misleading the public,” leaving open the possibility that the announced timeline does not hold in the end.

This is where the sources diverge. Vucic has publicly mentioned both October 18 and October 25 as equally possible. The deadline analysis carried by Nova, built on Vucevic’s own announcement of when the Main Board will meet, points the other way and concludes that October 18 is effectively out, while October 25 remains the one date that should survive a check against the legal deadlines.

Who tops the SNS list

Part of Vucevic’s Tuesday appearance touched on the makeup of the list itself. Asked whether the Serbian president would lead it, Vucevic said: “I believe our list will be called ‘United Serbia - Aleksandar Vucic.’” He added that it is now up to Vucic to make a final decision on his candidacy, but that this is also the party’s wish.

Asked whether Vucic would actually run for prime minister if the list wins voter support, Vucevic answered briefly: “I’m sure he will, that’s our wish, but it’s up to him to make that decision.”

If Vucic accepts a spot on the list, that raises a question that has been open for months: his resignation as president. Vucic himself addressed this in July, announcing that he would resign a few days after calling parliamentary elections in his capacity as president. Srpske vesti has previously reported on the formation of the SNS Main Board and on the message from the party leadership that the list must win on its own, without leaning on the head of state’s office.

What a resignation means for the presidential race

Ivkovic points out that a presidential resignation would open up a separate question: the timing of a presidential election.

If the president resigns, the law requires elections to be held within 90 days at the latest, and the campaign can last a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 60 days.

By that math, a presidential election could be called the very same day Vucic resigns, with the shortest possible run-up of 30 days to the vote. “Then the election could be held as early as 30 days from that point, for example if he resigns at the end of September, the vote could come at the end of October, but there’s also that 90-day window to maneuver within,” Ivkovic said. That means, depending on the party’s own decisions, a presidential election could fall anywhere between late October and late December.

Until a new president is elected, the role would be filled on an acting basis by National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic. Ivkovic notes that she could remain in that role even if the Assembly were dissolved, since her mandate does not end until a new parliament speaker is elected.

Vucic himself said two months ago that if parliamentary elections come in October, the presidential vote could follow in late December or early January, a timeline that matches the maximum legal deadline cited by Ivkovic.

The next marker for all of these calculations is the SNS Main Board session, expected roughly two weeks after August 25. That meeting should produce a final decision on the election list and, indirectly, an answer to which of the two October dates actually remains on the table.