The current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, resigned from the post of head of state of the Serbian state on the evening of September 27.
He resigned on Sunday to run for prime minister as the candidate of his party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
He had previously announced early parliamentary elections for October 25.
Vučić stepped down as Serbian head of state eight months before the end of his presidential term, which according to law was to end in May 2027.
Vučić has been elected president of Serbia twice.
Since the Serbian Constitution does not allow for a third term, he would not be able to run again.
After Vučić's resignation, Serbia will have an acting president.
This task will be taken on by Ana Brnabić, the current speaker of the Serbian Parliament, which was dissolved after the announcement of parliamentary elections.
She can stay in this position for a maximum of three months.
Vucic said in an address to the public that the first round of the presidential election will be held by the end of December.
In addition, he said he had made a decision on amnesty and pardon for 49 people.
"Of them, 23 people are connected to all these terrible events that we have been through over the last year and a half," Vucic said.
When will the elections for the new president of Serbia be held?
Vučić's resignation means that the citizens of Serbia, after the parliamentary elections on October 25, will go to the polling stations again.
According to the law, presidential elections are announced "so that the vote is held no later than three months from the day the president's term ends."
Also, no less than 30 and no more than 60 days may pass from the day of the announcement of the elections to the day of voting.
This means that the presidential elections will be held at the end of December at the latest, and at the beginning of November of this year at the earliest.
Accusations of campaigning by officials
Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party have been the axis of power in Serbia since 2012.
On the eve of the upcoming parliamentary elections, Vučić announced that he wants to return to the post of prime minister, a position he has held for two terms.
He entered the campaign for these elections from the position of the president of the state – he agreed to be the bearer of the electoral list that the SNS, together with its coalition partners, submitted two weeks before Vučić's resignation.
The debate on whether it is against the law for the president of Serbia to simultaneously be a candidate in parliamentary elections was opened to the public by the non-governmental organization Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI).
She asked the Anti-Corruption Agency to comment on this issue.
However, this request remained unanswered.
BIRODI also filed a complaint on September 15 against Vučić's participation in the campaign with the Republican Election Commission (RIK), which is responsible for overseeing the electoral process.
A day later, the RIK dismissed the complaint as "unfounded."
Even before the start of pre-election activities, the opposition and election observers had repeatedly criticized the president for abusing his state function to promote his party.
The Progressives rejected these accusations, saying that they deal with the party "outside of working hours."
Local and international observers have been warning for years about the problem of campaigning by officials in Serbia, namely the use of state positions to promote parties during the electoral process. /Taken from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
