Vucic on Pink: SNS Presidential Run Not Ruled Out
On the day voting was repeated at 53 polling stations, Aleksandar Vucic said on Hit Tvit that SNS sees no reason to run under current conditions, but the final decision has not been made.
Aleksandar Vucic, who headed the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list, said on Sunday evening, November 1, on the “Hit Tvit” show on TV Pink that under current conditions there is no reason for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to take part in the presidential election. In the same conversation he rejected the reading that he had thereby ruled out a candidate. The appearance came on the same day that voting was repeated at 53 polling stations, closing the circle on the parliamentary elections of October 25.
What exactly did Vucic say about the presidential election?
According to Vreme, the presidential election must be held by the end of 2026. Vucic spoke about it this way:
“Under these conditions there is no reason whatsoever to take part in something that is a farce.”
The reason, as he explained, lies in the conditions under which people vote. He listed what he had in mind:
“We have never whined. That is not even the question. But in conditions where you beat up our people, where you threaten arrests and harassment, and that is done because someone is your opponent, not because they have committed some offense somewhere, and so on. So, in conditions where you barge in on our family slava celebrations, where you run a witch hunt and a smear campaign, take part by yourselves”
Those are Vucic’s claims, made on the show; the sources available to us do not say he backed them with facts. He also said: “Simply, here there is not only no political life, but you take part in something where someone comes and ties both your hands and your feet.”
Asked whether he had said SNS would have no presidential candidate, he answered: “I did not say that we will not have a candidate.” He then added: “Let your satellites come, and let those who want to take part for the sake of their own promotion come, and not because they can achieve any result.” In the end he left the question open: “But whether that will be the final decision or not, we will only see.”
Two outlets headlined the same conversation in opposite ways. Vreme reported that SNS will not run in the presidential election, while Pink said the possibility of running still exists. The literal statements show that both readings are accurate, because Vucic closed off neither. He spoke similarly earlier, when he said: “Let them be alone, let them work by themselves, let them find 2-3 satellites who will run in the presidential election with one or two percent each.”
What did he say about the defeat and the figures from the 53 stations?
Asked about the election result, Vucic said: “I lost the election.” He also said he is not giving up: “I am ready for anything, I will endure anything. I will beat them even from prison.”
For the repeated voting at the 53 stations, he offered his own tally. As he put it on Pink:
“I think 44.1 to 44 is a tie, that is, 4,772 to 4,792, the Student List won today’s election by 0.1%.”
By those figures, “United Serbia” received 4,772 votes and the Student List 4,792, which is 20 votes more. Vucic added that this “says nothing” and that it is not a stratified sample. These are his numbers, not official data. Turnout at those 53 stations was 44.9 percent, according to Crta.
In broader terms, Vucic concluded: “That tells us that there are two big political options, and only two big political options.”
The official result from all 8,392 polling stations was published by the Republic Electoral Commission. The Student List won 53.01 percent, the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list 38.98 percent, and 4,444,310 voters turned out, or 68.89 percent of those registered. Under the preliminary seat distribution cited by Crta, the Student List has 140 seats and Vucic’s list 103. The list of Usame Zukorlic also enters parliament, and according to Crta a margin of 12 votes gave it the mandate.
How do Danas’s interviewees read it?
Milomir Mandic, a Demostat researcher, told Danas, before Vucic’s appearance on Pink, that the announcement that SNS will have no candidate serves to avoid a further slide in its ratings:
“The result in the presidential election would be far worse than in the parliamentary one in absolute numbers, so at the root of this decision is avoiding an even more decisive defeat compared with the parliamentary elections. A decisive first-round victory for the Student List candidate in the presidential election is not in question, and that is one reason for this decision of Vucic’s.”
Mandic recalls that Vucic was elected in the first round in 2022 with 2.2 million votes. Sociologist Dario Hajric, also speaking to Danas, believes: “It would not be a surprise at all if SNS really does not nominate anyone in the presidential election, aware that even before Sunday’s debacle it could not find a candidate who could win that election.”
On the other side, Ana Brnabic said the most important thing is to form the institutions quickly. The presidential election, she stated, will be called in line with the Constitution by December 27, or someone else will take over as acting president if the institutions are formed quickly.
What happens next?
The first, constitutive session of the new National Assembly must be held no later than 30 days after the final election results are declared. From then, a 90-day deadline runs for forming the government. For now there is no SNS decision on a candidate, and Vucic said it would be seen only “later”. The date Brnabic cited, December 27, remains the only deadline by which the question has to be settled.
