Serbia’s New Parliament by 10 December, Presidential Vote by 27 December
After the repeat vote, RIK’s final report sets the clock running. Here are the deadlines for the new Assembly, the government and the presidential election.
With the repeat vote at 53 polling stations completed, Serbia’s Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) is expected to publish final results of the 25 October parliamentary election by the end of this week or early next week, RIK member David Krstić told N1 on Monday. That report starts a chain of legal deadlines that runs to the end of the year.
When will the new National Assembly meet?
Electoral commissions at the rerun polling stations have 96 hours to submit their reports, and RIK then has another 96 hours to adopt its final report. It has ten more days to allocate seats to individual MPs. The outgoing speaker must convene the new Assembly within 30 days of the final report. Krstić said the constitutive session could therefore be held by 10 December at the latest, depending on the timing of the report and any further complaints.
Speaker and acting president Ana Brnabić said on Monday that she would call the session “in the shortest possible period of time” once RIK announces the final results. She said her Serbian Progressive Party had not filed complaints about the vote because it wanted institutions formed quickly, and urged the Student List to form them.
How many seats each list has
After the rerun, the Student List has 53.01% of the vote and 140 of the 250 seats, and Aleksandar Vučić’s United Serbia 38.98% and 103 seats. The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and an Albanian coalition have two seats each, and three Bosniak parties, including Usame Zukorlić’s Justice and Reconciliation Party, one each.
The Assembly is constituted once two-thirds of mandates, 167, are verified. Legal experts quoted by Nova have said this is a technical check of RIK’s report, not a vote, so it does not require 167 MPs to be present. A quorum for work is 126.
The government and the presidency
Once the Assembly is constituted, a government must be elected within 90 days. In parallel, a presidential election is due because Vučić resigned on 27 September. The constitution requires the vote within three months, which means by Sunday, 27 December, and the law requires 30 to 60 days between the call and polling day. Brnabić has said the election will be called by 27 November; Krstić put the deadline for a 27 December vote at 26 November. If a new speaker is elected before then, the new speaker would issue the call.
The Student List has not officially named a presidential candidate.
Sources
- N1 — RIK member: constitutive session by 10 December at the latest (in Serbian)
- Tanjug — Brnabić: I will call the session as soon as RIK announces final results
- B92 — Brnabić: presidential election to be called by 27 November (in Serbian)
- Nova — Why SNS cannot block the constitution of the Assembly (in Serbian)
- Mondo — When the presidential election must be held (in Serbian)
This report is written by The Serbian Review from the sources listed above; facts are attributed where they could not be independently verified. Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.
