Brnabic: Parliament Will Sit Before Constitutional Deadline
Serbia's acting president did not give a date in her post on X. The 30-day window for the new parliament's first session runs from the publication of final results by the RIK.
Ana Brnabic, Serbia’s acting president and speaker of the National Assembly from the previous term, announced on Sunday, November 8, that the constituent session of parliament will be held before the deadline set by the Constitution. She posted the message on X and did not name a date for the session.
“As for the parliament, just follow the announcements of the competent state bodies. And it will be well before the constitutional deadline,” Brnabic wrote.
The message does not say how far ahead of the deadline the session will be, or who will inform the public of the date, beyond the general reference to “competent state bodies.” A few days ago, as Novosti reported, Brnabic said she would convene the session in the “shortest possible time,” as soon as the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) announces the final results.
Where does the 30-day deadline start?
The Constitution says the first session of a newly elected parliament is called by the speaker from the previous term and must be held no later than 30 days after the final election results are announced. According to several media outlets, the RIK published the final results of the snap parliamentary elections of October 25 on the evening of November 5 and adopted its overall report on the results at that time.
On that count the deadline would expire around December 5. That is a calculation from statutory time limits, not a statement from any institution, and it depends on which date is taken as the starting point: on the RIK website, the sessions after the results are listed under November 6.
At its 76th session on November 6, chaired by RIK President Vladimir Dimitrijevic, the commission adopted the Decision on the Allocation of Seats to Members of Parliament. The Law on the Election of Members of Parliament gives the commission ten days from the publication of the overall report to award seats to candidates in the order they appear on each list, so that step has already been completed.
What do the official RIK figures show?
According to figures the RIK presented at a press conference, the “Student List - Students Win” list received 2,354,417 votes and 140 seats, and the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list received 1,731,323 votes and 103 seats. Voting took place at 8,392 polling stations, 4,441,636 voters cast ballots, and 4,385,065 ballots were valid. Eighteen lists took part, nine of them with the status of a national minority list, and voting was repeated on November 1 at 53 polling stations.
When is parliament constituted, and what comes next?
Deputies’ mandates are confirmed at the first session on the basis of the RIK report. The Assembly is constituted once the mandates of at least two thirds of deputies are confirmed, which is 167 of 250, and at that moment the mandate of the previous parliament ends.
From the moment of constitution, 90 days start running for the election of a government. The president of the Republic nominates the prime minister after hearing representatives of the elected lists. If no government is elected within that period, the Constitution requires the Assembly to be dissolved and new elections called, to be completed no later than 60 days after they are called.
What did Brnabic and Vucic say earlier?
At a press conference at the Presidency, her first public address after the snap parliamentary elections (made before the repeat vote on November 1), Brnabic urged the newly elected parliamentary majority to start setting up the organs of government as soon as possible. According to N1, she also said the following:
“Forming the institutions quickly is the most important thing right now, so that those who won the elections take responsibility for how people live in this country, and if the harassment of citizens and terror against citizens and disregard for the law and the Constitution continue, then we will all know who is responsible for it.”
At the same conference, Brnabic said that presidential elections will be held in line with the Constitution by December 27, or, if the institutions are formed quickly, someone else will take over as acting president. Under the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic, an acting president may hold the office for three months at most. N1 calculates from this that presidential elections would have to be called by November 27.
Aleksandar Vucic, the leader of the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list, said in a live address on social media, as reported by Alo: “I believe the National Assembly will be convened in about ten days.”
We found no reaction from the Student List to Brnabic’s post by the time this article was published.
