Slađan Radovanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Слађан Радовановић; born 18 October 1964) is a politician in Serbia. He was the mayor of Rača from 2000 to 2004, held high municipal office in neighbouring Kragujevac from 2004 to 2014, and was a member of both the National Assembly of Serbia and the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro. For most of his time as an elected official, Radovanović was a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski pokret obnove, SPO).

Private career edit

Radovanović was born in Rača, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Raised in the village of Veliko Krčmare,[1] he graduated from the Faculty of Teacher Education in Jagodina and worked at the Jovan Popović elementary school in Kragujevac from 1986 to 2000.[2]

Politician edit

The 2000 Serbian local elections were generally disastrous for the SPO, with the party losing much of its support base to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS). In Rača, the SPO and DOS ran a coordinated campaign, with both sides withholding candidates in certain divisions to prevent vote-splitting. The result was a rare majority victory for the SPO; Radovanović was chosen as mayor after the election with DOS support.[3]

DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Slobodan Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, which took place concurrently with the local elections. This event prompted widespread changes in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics; among many other things, the government of Serbia resigned, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December 2000. Radovanović appeared in the 166th position on the SPO's electoral list, which did not cross the threshold to win representation in the assembly.[4] (From 2000 to 2011, mandates in Serbian parliamentary elections were awarded to successful parties or coalitions rather than individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order.[5] Radovanović's list position had no formal bearing on his chances of election, although the list's failure to cross the threshold made the issue moot in any case.)

The SPO contested the 2003 parliamentary election in an alliance with New Serbia (Nova Srbija, NS), and Radovanović was given the 149th position on their combined list.[6] The list won twenty-two mandates, and Radovanović was chosen as part of the SPO delegation when the assembly convened in January 2004.[7] His term was brief. By virtue of its performance in the parliamentary election, the SPO–NS alliance had the right to appoint eight members to the federal assembly of Serbia and Montenegro. Radovanović was appointed as one of the SPO's federal delegates and so resigned his seat in the republican assembly.[8] In May 2004, he was appointed to the federal parliament's commission for control of the state union's security services.[9]

Radovanović's term as mayor of Rača came to an end in late 2004. His political ally Veroljub Stevanović was elected as mayor of Kragujevac in the 2004 Serbian local elections, and Radovanović was subsequently appointed as Kragujevac's chief expert for regional and interregional cooperation.[10]

The SPO suffered a serious split in 2005, and several members – including Stevanović and Radovanović – were expelled from the party.[11] It is probable that Radovanović followed Stevanović in joining the breakaway Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement (Srpski Demokratski Pokret Obnove, SDPO), although online sources do not confirm this point.

The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro dissolved in 2006 when Montenegro declared independence, and Radovanović's term in the federal assembly came to an end accordingly.

Veroljub Stevanović was chosen for a new term as mayor of Kragujevac after the 2008 local elections, and Radovanović was promoted to assistant mayor with responsibility for regional and interregional cooperation.[12] He remained in this role until 5 September 2014.[13]

In 2020, Radovanović became a member of Healthy Serbia (Zdrava Srbija, ZS) and served on its main board.[14] Healthy Serbia contested the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election in an alliance with Better Serbia (Bolja Srbija, BS), and Radovanović appeared in the ninety-eighth position on the combined list of the parties.[15] The list did not cross the electoral threshold to win assembly representation.

References edit

  1. ^ "Jedva preživeli, al' obraz sačuvali", Glas javnosti, 14 March 2001, accessed 14 April 2022.
  2. ^ Помоћник градоначелника за област регионалне и међурегионалне сарадње, Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Trnovit put do boljeg", Glas javnosti, 28 July 2001, accessed 12 April 2022.
  4. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 „Српски покрет обнове – Вук Драшковић" – Вук Драшковић), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6. СРПСКИ ПОКРЕТ ОБНОВЕ - НОВА СРБИЈА - ВУК ДРАШКОВИЋ - ВЕЛИМИР ИЛИЋ) Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Skupština čeka demokrate", Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 12 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Izbor poslanika u Skupštinu SCG", Glas javnosti, 12 February 2004, accessed 24 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Serbia-Montenegro Assembly appoints commission for control of security services," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 5 May 2004 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1346 gmt 5 May 04).
  10. ^ Помоћник градоначелника за област регионалне и међурегионалне сарадње, Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 April 2022.
  11. ^ "SPO Kragujevac: Isključeno 10", B92, 10 May 2005, accessed 14 April 2022.
  12. ^ Помоћник градоначелника за област регионалне и међурегионалне сарадње, Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 April 2022.
  13. ^ Službeni List (Grada Kragujevca), Volume 24 Number 31 (12 September 2014), p. 1.
  14. ^ Чланови Главног одбора Здраве Србије Archived 2020-06-03 at the Wayback Machine, Healthy Serbia, accessed 2 April 2021.
  15. ^ "Ko je sve na listi Milana Stamatovića i Dragana Jovanovića za poslanike?", Danas, 22 May 2020, accessed 14 February 2021.