Serbia's Electoral Commission Hands Out 250 Mandates to New Assembly

Serbia's Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) formally assigned the 250 seats of the new National Assembly to individual MPs on Friday, 6 November, a day after it announced the final results of the early parliamentary election held on 25 October. RIK president Vladimir Dimitrijević said the commission's role in the election was now over and that the constitution of the new parliament comes next.

Final seat count

The Student List – The Students Will Win holds 140 seats, a clear majority, while Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia has 103. The remaining seven seats go to national minority lists: two each for the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and the Albanian Coalition, and one each for Rasim Ljajić's list, the SDA of Sandžak and Usame Zukorlić's Movement for Unification, which cleared the bar only after the partial rerun at 53 polling stations.

According to RIK data reported by N1, 4,444,310 of 6,451,292 registered voters took part, a turnout of about 69%. The Student List received 2,354,417 votes and United Serbia 1,731,323.

When the new parliament must meet

The outgoing speaker must convene the constitutive session within 30 days of the announcement of the final results, which RIK adopted on the evening of 5 November. That puts the legal deadline in early December. The Assembly is constituted once two thirds of mandates are verified; it then elects a speaker and starts the 90-day window for electing a government. A separate presidential election also has to be called, as the presidency is vacant.

Who will lead?

The Student List has still not named its candidates for prime minister or president. Marko Đenadić, one of its representatives, told Demostat that the list has more than one candidate for each post, but declined to confirm or deny any of the names circulating in the media. He defended the movement's practice of announcing names late, saying it had worked during the campaign.

What it means

With mandates assigned, the formal transfer of power now depends on the timing of the first session. Until a new government is elected, the outgoing cabinet continues in a caretaker (technical) mandate.