Saša Vučinić (Serbian politician)

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Saša Vučinić' (Serbian Cyrillic: Саша Вучинић; born 7 October 1973) is a politician in Serbia. He was a member of the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 2000 to 2003, a member of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 to 2004, and the mayor of Subotica from 2004 to 2008. Vučinić is a member of the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS).

Early life and career[edit]

Vučinić was born in Istok, in what was then the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He later moved to Subotica in Vojvodina and trained as an electrical energy technician. He co-founded the youth magazine Talas in 1998 and worked with CITY Radio and the television station Info Kanal in 1998–99.[1]

Politician[edit]

Vučinić joined the DS is 1996 and took part in the 1996–1997 protests in Serbia against electoral fraud. He became president of the DS municipal board in Subotica for the first time in 1999.[2]

Federal parliamentarian[edit]

The Democratic Party contested the 2000 Yugoslavian parliamentary election as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's administration. Vučinić appeared in the second position on the DOS's electoral list for the Subotica division and was given a mandate when the DOS won two of the area's three seats. (For this election, half of the mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, while the other half were awarded to candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Vučinić did not receive an automatic mandate but was included in the DOS delegation all the same.)[3][4] Milošević was defeated in the concurrent Yugoslavian presidential election, an event that prompted large-scale political changes in both Serbia and Yugoslavia. Vučinić served as a supporter of Yugoslavia's new administration and was a member of the assembly committee on security and defence.[5]

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was reconstituted as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in March 2003, and the initial membership of the new federal parliament was chosen by indirect election from the republican parliaments of Serbia and Montenegro. By virtue of their standing in the Serbian parliament, the DS and aligned parties had the right to appoint thirty-seven members; Vučinić was included in his party's delegation.[6] He was not re-appointed in 2004[7]

Local politics[edit]

Vučinić was elected to the Subotica municipal assembly as a DOS member in the 2000 Serbian local elections. From 2002 to 2004, he was a vice-president of the assembly, a position that was at the time equivalent to deputy mayor.[8] He received the third position on the DS's list for Subotica in the 2004 Serbian local elections and was re-elected when the list won twelve mandates.[9][10][11] Chosen as assembly speaker after the election, he served in this role for the next four years.[12]

Vučinić appeared in the fourth position on the DS's For a European Subotica list in the 2008 local elections.[13] The DS's alliance won a plurality victory in the election and formed a local coalition government with the Hungarian Coalition.[14] Vučinić was chosen as mayor July 2008 and continued in the role until 2012.[15][16] Relations between the governing parties were often difficult in this time.[17]

The DS's Choice for a Better Life list won another plurality victory with twenty out of sixty-seven mandates in the 2012 Serbian local elections. Vučinić appeared in the second position on the list and was re-elected to the local assembly; fellow party member Modest Dulić succeeded him as mayor.[18][19][20][21] Following a re-alignment of the city's political forces in 2013, the DS moved into opposition.[22]

Vučinić led the DS's For a Just Subotica list in the 2016 local elections and was re-elected when the list won seven mandates.[23][24] The Serbian Progressive Party and its allies won the election, and the DS again served in opposition; Vučinić led the party's group in the assembly.[25][26] He was not a candidate in the 2020 local elections, which the DS boycotted.

Politics and the republican and provincial levels[edit]

Vučinić appeared on the DS's electoral list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and on the party's For a European Serbia list in the 2008 Serbian parliamentary election.[27] He was not assigned a mandate on either occasion.[28][29] (From 2000 to 2008, all parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be distributed out of numerical order. Vučinić's list position had no specific bearing on his chances of election.)[30]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Vučinić received the 124th position on the DS's Choice for a Better Life list in the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election and was not elected when the list won sixty-seven mandates.[31]

Vučević also appeared in the forty-seventh position (out of sixty) on the DS's Choice for a Better Vojvodina list in the 2012 Vojvodina provincial election.[32] Election from this position was a statistical impossibility, and he was not elected when the list won sixteen proportional mandates.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Gradonačelnik Saša Vučinić, subotica.info, 10 July 2008, accessed 15 2021.
  2. ^ Gradonačelnik Saša Vučinić, subotica.info, 10 July 2008, accessed 15 2021.
  3. ^ "Ko su poslanici", Vreme, 28 September 2000, accessed 16 November 2021.
  4. ^ ИЗБОРИ 2000: ВЕЋЕ РЕПУБЛИКА И ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (2000), p. 43.
  5. ^ Gradonačelnik Saša Vučinić, subotica.info, 10 July 2008, accessed 15 2021.
  6. ^ "Poslanici nove države", Glas Javnosti, 20 February 2003, accessed 31 May 2018.
  7. ^ "DRUGO VANREDNO ZASEDANJE, 12.02.2004.", Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 25 August 2021.
  8. ^ Gradonačelnik Saša Vučinić, subotica.info, 10 July 2008, accessed 15 2021.
  9. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Subotica), Volume 40 Number 39 (8 September 2004), p. 4.
  10. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Subotica), Volume 40 Number 43 (20 September 2004), p. 2.
  11. ^ In the 2004 local elections, the first one-third of mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. See Law on Local Elections, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 33/2002; made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 29 May 2021.
  12. ^ Gradonačelnik Saša Vučinić, subotica.info, 10 July 2008, accessed 15 2021.
  13. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Subotica), Volume 44 Number 12 (29 April 2008), p. 1.
  14. ^ Službeni List (Opštine Subotica), Volume 44 Number 14 (12 May 2008), p. 2.
  15. ^ "Saša Vučinić novi gradonačelnik", Danas, 11 July 2008, accessed 12 November 2021.
  16. ^ For an interview with Vučinić during his time as mayor, see "Deseti u Evropi", Vreme, 26 April 2012.
  17. ^ "Gradonačelnik Subotice najavljuje izlazak iz političke blokade", Politika, 28 December 2019, accessed 15 November 2021.
  18. ^ Službeni List (Grada Subotice), Volume 48 Number 23 (25 April 2012), p. 5.
  19. ^ Službeni List (Grada Subotice), Volume 48 Number 30 (7 May 2012), p. 3.
  20. ^ "Modest Dulić novi gradonačelnik Subotice", Radio Television of Vojvodina, 10 July 2012, accessed 11 November 2021.
  21. ^ J. LEMAJIĆ, "Subotica: Duliću ključevi grada", Novosti, 14 July 2012, accessed 15 November 2021.
  22. ^ "Jene Maglai novi gradonačelnik Subotice", subotica.com, 21 November 2013, accessed 11 November 2021.
  23. ^ Službeni List (Grada Subotice), Volume 51 Number 24 (18 April 2016), p. 3.
  24. ^ Službeni List (Grada Subotice), Volume 51 Number 26 (25 April 2016), p. 2.
  25. ^ "Bogdan Laban novi gradonačelnik Subotice", Radio Television of Vojvodina, 23 June 2016, accessed 6 November 2021.
  26. ^ "Vučinić: Neprihvatljiv odnos vladajuće većine prema medijima", Blic, 28 April 2017, accessed 15 November 2021.
  27. ^ Vučinić received the 217th list position in 2003 and the thirty-third position in 2008. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА – БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021; and Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска странка – Борис Тадић), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 10 July 2021.
  28. ^ 27 January 2004 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2021.
  29. ^ 11 June 2008 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 15 November 2021.
  30. ^ Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  31. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ИЗБОР ЗА БОЉИ ЖИВОТ- БОРИС ТАДИЋ), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 10 July 2021.
  32. ^ Изборне листе за изборе за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине (Изборна листа 1 - "ИЗБОР ЗА БОЉУ ВОЈВОДИНУ-БОЈАН ПАЈТИЋ" - кандидати за посланике), Избори 2012, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 12 July 2021.
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