Aleksic: Election Set for October 25, Call This Week
NPS leader Miroslav Aleksic says Serbia's parliamentary election should be held on October 25, with the call expected early next week, after the ruling camp had floated October 18.
Miroslav Aleksic, leader of the People’s Movement of Serbia (NPS), said on August 31 in an interview with N1 television that Serbia’s parliamentary election will, in all likelihood, be held on October 25, and that he expects the official call to come as early as next week. Aleksic became the first opposition leader to publicly name a specific voting date, rather than the date previously floated by the ruling camp.
Serbia’s law on the election of members of parliament requires that between 45 and 60 days pass between the call and the vote. If the election is indeed held on October 25, that means the call could legally come as early as August 26 and as late as September 10, a window that has already opened. Aleksic said he is confident the decision will be made in the first days of that week.
The NPS leader also noted that part of the public still doubts the election will happen at all. “I think today there is a portion of citizens in Serbia who doubt whether there will be elections at all,” Aleksic said, adding that the government’s accelerated pre-election activity, including the announced cash payout to citizens, in his view confirms that the election process really is approaching.
Why Aleksic Calls the Payout an Act of Charity
On the same day, Serbia’s National Assembly passed a proposed budget rebalance setting aside funds for a one-off cash payment to citizens, in amounts previously announced to range between 6,000 and 30,000 dinars. Aleksic reads the measure as a pre-election move rather than social policy.
“To me, this is just another attempt at manipulation. In my speech I said that citizens should take all the money being offered to them, because it’s their money, money that belongs to all of us, we’re the ones filling that budget, but that when they vote they should think about why this matters so much to someone,” said the NPS leader.
Part of the public perceives the payout as personal assistance from President Aleksandar Vucic. Aleksic attributes that reading to what he called the building of a personality cult around the president, and insists the money is state funds, not private.
“Citizens who believe Aleksandar Vucic is giving them something, he isn’t giving them anything, it’s theirs,” Aleksic said. He described the payout as “charity aimed at a pre-election campaign,” and leveled a sharper assessment at the government: “What I see as a major problem is that Vucic deliberately keeps citizens in poverty, because he understands that poor and frightened citizens are the easiest to control.”
Opposition Alliance Ahead of the Vote
NPS recently formed a political alliance called Narodna Srbija (People’s Serbia), together with the parties Novo lice Srbije (New Face of Serbia) and Ekoloski ustanak (Ecological Uprising). Aleksic said that, within that format, NPS plans talks with other opposition figures as well, aiming to keep the anti government vote from being split across multiple lists.
“Every division among those who oppose Aleksandar Vucic’s regime works to the benefit only of the Serbian Progressive Party,” Aleksic said, adding that no opposition vote should go to waste.
“No opposition vote should go to waste,” he repeated, explaining that NPS already has a field structure in place on which it is building its campaign. According to him, the party currently has councillors and councillor groups in 106 cities and municipalities, and all of those people, he said, are involved in pre-election activities on the ground.
A few days ago, Srpske vesti reported remarks by Vucevic in which October 18, a week earlier than the date Aleksic now cites, was mentioned as a possible election date. The two opposing sides of the political scene are thus putting forward different dates for the same event, and the question of when Serbia’s National Assembly will be officially dissolved, and when the president will sign the call, remains open until the first days of September.
