Vucic Expects 4 Million Voters and a 400,000-Vote Margin
The head of the 'Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia' list told TV Pink he expects about four million voters to turn out, and he holds a rally in Cacak at 4 p.m. today.
Aleksandar Vucic, head of the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list, expects a margin of at least 400,000 votes over his opponents in the October 25 election, he said today as a guest on TV Pink. He estimated that about four million citizens will go to the polls and that his list will win more than two million votes. At 4 p.m. the same day, Vucic holds a campaign rally in Cacak.
How many voters and votes does Vucic expect?
The sources disagree on one figure. According to Tanjug and the Srbija Danas portal, Vucic expects a turnout of about four million voters, while the Beta agency reports that he said 4.1 million. According to Tanjug and Srbija Danas, the list will win more than two million and 50 thousand votes, or about 50 percent, while Beta reports that he hopes to win more than 50 percent.
He was very specific about the margin. He is not counting on a win by 10, 20 or 50 thousand votes, he said, but on at least 400,000. He also described how he pictures the outcome:
If things go the way they seem to me, the margin will be so big that they will be shocked
According to Tanjug, he said this while claiming that opposition leaders know they are losing but think something will happen.
Why is Vucic calling for a high turnout?
After that estimate, he urged voters to come out in the greatest possible numbers. According to Beta, he said:
People, they are deceiving you about a big turnout. I want you to come out in the greatest possible numbers.
He backed the argument with a number. According to Beta, Vucic claims that for every percentage point of turnout above 63 percent, the list gains considerably more votes than its opponents:
Everything over 63 percent that comes out, we get a significantly larger number of people voting for us than for them
He explains this by saying that his voters are, in his words, decent people and somewhat frightened. Tanjug also reports that he described the October 25 election as a defense of Serbian statehood.
What did he say about election night and the control of voting?
Responding to talk he said he hears about annulling polling stations in Belgrade, Vucic declared:
We will not do anything at all, except that we will not allow you to steal the will of the people. We will not let you steal sacks, we will not let you steal the records, we will not let you steal a single vote in Serbia
He said this on Pink, according to Tanjug and Srbija Danas.
For election night, two sources carry two versions. According to Tanjug, he will not address the public before 10 p.m., and around 9:30 p.m. he expects to know who won, because he will have a sample by then. According to Beta, he will announce nothing before 9:30 p.m., when he expects a stratified sample. Tanjug adds that he will not declare victory until he has seen all the results.
What kind of government does Vucic promise?
If he becomes prime minister, he will look for a government of efficient, quick, decisive, brave and hardworking people, Vucic said, adding that for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) an absolute majority in the National Assembly matters for the sake of stability and peace. Tanjug carries his statement word for word:
I will look for a government of, above all, efficient people: quick, decisive, brave, efficient, hardworking
Asked whether he has people around him for such a government, since some of the public speculates that only Sinisa Mali and Ana Brnabic take part in the list’s pre-election debates, he said that Marina Ragus, Milenko Jovanov, Milos Vucevic, Zlatibor Loncar, Vladimir Djukanovic, Elek and Igor Simic also regularly take part in the campaign. “That is already 10 I have listed for you at once,” Vucic said.
In the same appearance, according to Tanjug, he announced that over the next four years he will try to fix hospitals in all municipal centers, if the list earns the trust of citizens. He also said that new AstraZeneca cancer drugs will arrive in Serbia starting in November.
What is happening in Cacak ahead of the rally?
The Cacak branch of SNS announced that the rally with Vucic starts at 4 p.m. in the hall of the “Borac” basketball club. Students of the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Cacak called on citizens not to get into clashes with SNS supporters, and in a statement they said:
Observing all current events we understand that it is hard to remain silent, but we ask you not to get into conflicts today and not to give importance to the announced SNS rally
Pavle Jelesijevic, an independent councilor in the Cacak City Assembly, posted that police will block all approaches to the hall, and he questioned the choice of venue: “Why isn’t the rally on the square? More people fit, is someone afraid of their citizens?” Jelesijevic also claims that workers at the Cacak company “Sloboda” are under heavy pressure to attend the rally.
